


Colors of the Sunrise

by theworldthatneverwas (FlightlessPhoenix)



Series: A Place to Belong [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aromantic, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, POV Second Person, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 10:13:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 38,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25847869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightlessPhoenix/pseuds/theworldthatneverwas
Summary: After the Keyblade War, Ephemer, Skuld, and the other Union Leaders are tasked with leading the Dandelions into a newer, brighter future. What were they up to while you were reliving the events of the past? Can things go back to the way they were before the Keyblade War when you meet again?Note: Regular chapter updates on hold until the new year.
Relationships: Ephemer & Player Character & Skuld (Kingdom Hearts), Ephemer & Player Character (Kingdom Hearts), Ephemer & Skuld (Kingdom Hearts), Ephemer (Kingdom Hearts) & Reader, Player Character & Skuld (Kingdom Hearts), Skuld (Kingdom Hearts) & Reader
Series: A Place to Belong [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638412
Comments: 50
Kudos: 156





	1. The Promised Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This work is a continuation of the AU in [Sound of the Sunset](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22790149/chapters/54461041), though it can be read separately as well. Enjoy :)

Now that the novelty of their new position is wearing off, Skuld can feel apprehension settling in again. She plucks at the threading on her bedsheets up in the clock tower. They’re just a bunch of kids. Can they really be put in charge of things like this? Ventus isn’t even a teenager, for goodness' sake. How are they supposed to take care of all the Dandelions? How are they supposed to run things after the war?

The thoughts swirl in her head until at last she gets up and walks over to the window to stare out at the tiny lights illuminating Daybreak Town. She wishes Master Ava could be here, at least. She seemed so calm and assured when telling them of their task that it made Skuld feel confident in it, too. 

At least Ephemer is here with her. That’s what she should do – talk to Ephemer. With all that’s happened they’ve barely had a moment to speak with each other. She draws back from the windowsill and wanders through the hallway, hoping she remembers which room he chose.

Her quiet knock isn’t answered immediately, and she wonders if he went to sleep early. It  _ was _ a long day, after all. Perhaps she ought to come back later–

“Skuld?”

Just as she’s turning to go back to her room, the door opens and Ephemer stands before her, rubbing at his eye. He’s still dressed, she notices, though he looks rather exhausted.

Skuld laces and unlaces her fingers. “Hey,” she says quietly. It’s not even so late that everyone should be sleeping, but something about the darkened hallways and the unfamiliar setting makes her feel like it would be rude to raise her voice. “Do you want to talk about today?”

Ephemer stands still in the doorway for a few moments, his eyes staring at nothing in particular. Then he takes a deep breath and opens his door wider. “Yeah,” he says, and moves to let her inside.

His room seems a bit larger than hers, but more cluttered, too. There seem to be many bookshelves and trinkets left behind, most of which don’t look like they belong to Ephemer. She glances around and sees that Ephemer has left to step onto the balcony just outside his room and moves to follow him.

“It’s a… nice room,” she says, coming up beside him and leaning against the railing. It’s a rather cool night and she’s glad she had the foresight to wear longer sleeves today. “Good view, too.”

Ephemer nods, a night breeze gently ruffling his curls. She’s never seen him quite this quiet before but she lets him be the first to break it, studying the lights in the tiny houses below.

“I understand if you’re upset with me,” Ephemer says in a small voice, causing Skuld to glance sideways at him. “Y’know. For leaving the way I did. For not trusting you.”

He’s silent again like he’s waiting for her to speak. Skuld takes a deep breath. “That’s not an apology, you know.”

His eyes widen and he looks over at her. “You’re right, Skuld. I… I was thinking mostly of myself when I left the party without really saying goodbye. And I didn’t trust you with my investigations and stuff when you’ve been nothing but trustworthy. That wasn’t the kind of thing a friend should do and I’ve been a poor friend and I’m really sorry. I wish I could do it over again.” He looks down at his gloves and clenches his fingers up in a fist before stretching them out again. “But… I’m glad you’re here too now. And I’d like to make it up to you somehow so we can go back to being friends again. You know, if that’s something you’d like.”

Skuld knows what her response is even before he’s finished speaking, but she holds her tongue for a while, letting him feel uncomfortable at her silence. “I  _ am _ upset,” she says, raising an eyebrow at him, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be friends. I need someone like you by my side when everything’s getting crazy.”

Ephemer’s shoulders relax in relief at her words. “Yeah, me too,” he says. Then, seemingly unsure of what to say, he turns back to the balcony and leans his elbows against the railing, staring into the distance again.

Skuld isn’t quite sure what to say either so she does the same, gazing up at the star-filled sky. It’s a clear night, and the stars twinkle brightly. The moon is just a small sliver hanging over the town. “What do you think of the others?” she asks after some time. 

“You mean the other leaders?” Ephemer asks, and she nods. “I’ve never met them. That Brain seems like an interesting guy. I wonder where the nickname is from. Assuming it’s a nickname, of course.”

“He seems capable, at least. I worry about Ven. He seems so young.”

Ephemer shrugs. “It wasn’t so long ago that the rest of us were his age. He might just look baby-faced, too. Master Ava must have seen something in him and I trust her, so I trust Ven, too.”

“Oh, it’s not that I don’t trust him,” Skuld protests. “I guess I was just thinking that it’s sad how young we get people involved in this sort of trouble. He should be free to grow up without this sort of burden.”

“Well, that’s what we’re working towards, isn’t it? A world where people don’t have to worry about stuff like Heartless and darkness. It’s difficult now, but I’m sure our efforts won’t go unappreciated.”

Skuld nods. “You’re right.” She traces an absent-minded pattern on the stone top of the railing. “I’m glad there are five of us,” she says. “I can’t imagine doing this alone.”

Another silence falls over the two of them, the only sound the gentle whooshing of the clock tower’s unusual pendulum and the mechanical whirring of the gears. “I suppose I should get some sleep,” Skuld says, drawing back from the railing and yawning. “It was good to talk to you. Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

Ephemer nods and smiles at her. “I won’t. Good night, Skuld.”

“‘Night, Ephemer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! And if you're coming here from Sound of the Sunset, welcome back ;) Finally, Ephemer and Skuld are together again. Soon the trio will be complete!
> 
> Feel free to drop by my KH Tumblr [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com) to chat about this fic or the KH games or theories, and check back on Tuesdays for more friendship adventures~


	2. Strange Memories

_ Ephemer! Skuld! _ You can see your friends’ silhouettes in the distance and call out to them, running to catch up. They don’t turn around, just keep walking forwards and you’re running and running but they don’t seem to be getting any closer. What is going on?

You stop to catch your breath and then Ephemer turns around only suddenly he’s wearing keyblade armour and you can’t see his face at all behind his helmet. He summons his keyblade and beside him Skuld turns and you see she’s wearing Master Ava’s fox mask. She raises her keyblade as well and there’s something terribly familiar about it and all at once you’re struck with a sudden sadness, like something is squeezing at your chest. And then they’re gone, vanishing into deep darkness where you can’t reach them. You feel something soft weighing on your chest and, with a jolt, realize it’s not part of a dream.

With great effort, you open your eyes. Sunlight…? Soft green-gold light is filtering in through what seem to be leaves forming a canopy above you. It’s almost blindingly bright and at first you wonder if that’s what woke you up, but then you remember the truth as you see a familiar fuzzy figure lying across your front. “Chirithy…?” you ask, confused. “What happened?”

You move to sit up and your Chirithy hops off of you, looking worried, and… there’s something else a bit unfamiliar in their expression but you can’t place it. You look around. This appears to be some kind of forest clearing. You rack your brain, trying to remember how you got here. Were you out on a mission? Trying to remember feels like catching smoke.

“Was it that dream again?” Chirithy asks, a tiny paw on your hand. 

“A dream…?” you repeat, mostly to yourself. You’d definitely been dreaming before you opened your eyes. You stare at your lap, trying to remember what the dream had been about. There was… sadness. You remember thinking about Ephemer and Skuld. And something about.. about… 

You shake your head. Whatever you’d been dreaming about, it’s long forgotten now. 

Chirithy continues, stepping back as you move to get to your feet, “It seems like you’ve had it over and over, ever since that day. Are you all right?”

You look around. Nothing in this forest seems familiar. Is it possible you’re just in another section of Dwarf Woodlands? Maybe you’d gotten lost. Then Chirithy’s words register with you and you turn back to them. “What day?”

Chirithy gives a little hop on the spot. “The day when you were invited to join the Dandelions by Master Ava, and you talked to Skuld at the Fountain Plaza. You saw her off as she went to join them. Ever since then, it seems like you have strange dreams from time to time.”

“Really…?” What Chirithy is telling you sounds almost like it could have happened to an entirely separate person with how little you remember, but then at last, some memories come floating back to you – you and Skuld, talking on the fountain. The two of you making food together at Beast’s Castle. Eating ice cream like you used to do with… Ephemer. “But then,” you continue, frowning at the place where you’d been lying on the forest floor, “why was I asleep in a place like this?”

There’s an unexpected silence and you turn to your companion, wondering if they hadn’t heard your question, before they speak, “Well, lately there have been a lot of tough missions, and you’ve been so exhausted, and maybe getting to a new world made you more open-minded?” Chirithy’s words sound a bit like a question.  _ Had _ you simply been so tired you just fell asleep here in this forest? The sunlight shining in through the leaves is indeed rather comforting. “It’s okay to take it easy every now and then, y’know,” says Chirithy.

You glance down at your clothes, which are a bit rumpled and dirty, presumably from lying on the ground. Maybe you really are working yourself too hard if you can’t remember deciding to take a nap. You shouldn’t worry Chirithy more by letting on how disoriented you feel. 

“Whoa…” Chirithy’s voice comes unexpectedly from behind you; you hadn’t realized they’d wandered off. You hurry to join them, standing in front of a path that’s blocked by thick, winding thorns so dense you can’t see what’s beyond them at all. “We can’t keep going with this in the way,” Chirithy muses. They turn to you. “How about we call it a day, and come back once we’ve thought of a way through?”

“Okay,” you agree, not seeing any other way forward. Besides, you need some time to get your head back on straight. Seems like napping on the job was not a good idea.

Overhead, a raven flies straight over the mess of thorns, off to whatever lies beyond the blocked path. Chirithy stares up at it, too. “If only we had wings, huh?” They turn to you. “Well, let’s head home.”

You nod, still lost in thought. What had the dream been about? You remember something about your friends… about Ephemer and Skuld…

* * *

Chirithy watches you head up the stairs away from the fountain plaza back home. They stand ponderously on the fountain edge, staring after you until your figure is hidden behind the buildings and foliage that makes up Daybreak Town’s streets.

They've heard that people are designed to shove all their sad memories deep down inside in order to protect their hearts. If that’s true… was it really necessary to overwrite the memories of all these people? Memories shouldn’t be forgotten, even the sad ones. Chirithy has seen the strength you found when you're fighting for your friends, even though their absence makes you sad. But maybe it’s easy for others to think sad memories shouldn’t be forgotten if the memories don’t belong to them.

Chirithy turns around and paces to the other end of the fountain. Even while those sad memories are buried deep inside your heart… the wounds and scars remain. It isn’t as though forgetting means it never happened. You might have had your memory overwritten, but Chirithy has seen how your heart still bears the scars of the past. 

If the time comes when you need to remember… Chirithy will be right by your side to help you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Player, on their own again... at least Chirithy is around!  
> I'm not 100% sure how this scene (from the original ending of KHX) fits into canon, so I'm putting my own interpretation on it. I wonder if we'll get more information on how the Dandelions came to understand the gap between the war and their arrival in the new worldline. I think there's supposed to finally be a main story update sometime this month still? What a journey the KHX saga has been haha.
> 
> You're welcome to drop by my KH Tumblr [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com) to chat - I'd love to hear from you!


	3. Night in the Dark Dream

Something hard knocks into your side and you're sent flying, hurtling onto the slick, muddy earth. There's a crash to your left and a keyblade lands right beside you, narrowly missing your hand. You jerk away and look up just in time to see the unsettling blank reflection of your own face in the shiny surface of the wielder's helmet before the darkness overtakes their body and a shimmering crystal heart drifts skywards. _No!_

The person who'd knocked you over spins on the spot, nearly tripping over your legs as you scramble to your feet again. Your own keyblade lies a few feet away and you resummon it to your hand, ready to defend yourself. Out of the corner of your eye, you see another heart rising into the night sky. The iridescent crystals flicker and shimmer like beautiful and terrible stars. 

The wielder holds out their hand towards you as though to help you up, but then their outline shimmers and warps as though you're seeing them underwater and the falling rain is smothering you and you're drowning in it, unable to breathe, and as you gasp for breath you hear a sound so high in pitch, so piercing, that it feels like your ears are on fire, your head is going to collapse, your heart explode–

You wake up all at once in a panic. The high pitched noise that woke you up cuts off instantly and you realize with a rush of embarrassment that it had been a scream - your own scream. Your palms and forehead are slick with sweat and you throw off your blankets for relief, wiping a hand across your face. Your shoulder hurts terribly, a deep, throbbing ache. You massage the heel of your hand into the muscle there, trying to soothe it, but it throbs with every beat of your heart, which is slamming against your ribcage at breakneck pace. 

There's a familiar _poof_ and Chirithy appears on your windowsill. You must look wild, hair plastered to your forehead, pajamas sticky with sweat. You feel all at once like you need to get up and go somewhere and also like you never want to venture out again. What _was_ that dream? 

"Are you okay?" your Chirithy asks, looking concerned. "I thought I heard–" 

Heat floods through your face as you realize Chirithy must have heard you screaming; maybe thought you were under attack. "It was… I had a bad dream is all. I'm sorry I worried you." 

Chirithy doesn't look entirely convinced so you fake a yawn and try to settle back under the covers. They feel hot and clammy and not at all comfortable right now, but you don't want Chirithy to worry. It's silly getting so worked up over a nightmare, anyway. "I think I'll go back to sleep," you say, hoping you sound convincingly calm and sleepy. "Wake me up for today's mission." 

Though the conversation is effectively closed by virtue of you turning your back on your fuzzy companion and feigning sleepiness, Chirithy lingers for what seems like several minutes before disappearing with a familiar poof sound. 

You throw some of the blankets off of yourself when they're gone, feeling too hot and sticky, your heart beating too erratically, to slide off into sleep. What had the dream been about? Why did it feel familiar? 

* * *

"Um… Excuse me!" Your Chirithy's voice is high and slightly shrill as they appear on the bedside table next to a curly-haired boy. "Excuse me!" 

He murmurs a bit in his sleep, his mouth slightly open as he dreams, but does not wake up. 

The tiny Chirithy hops back and forth on the windowsill, agitated. They have to wake him up - he said he wanted to know _at once_ if anything had changed. Taking a breath, they try again. "Excuse me!!" 

This time, Ephemer opens one sleepy eye to gaze blearily in the direction of the window where Chirithy stands. Noticing the cat-like creature, he sits up immediately, all traces of drowsiness seeming to vanish. "What happened? Do you have news?"

Chirithy nods, hopping over to perch on the end of the bed. "They… they had a nightmare," Chirithy begins, and explains how you'd screamed so loudly you woke yourself up. "I don't think they remember really, not enough to understand what happened, but it isn't good." 

Seemingly without thinking, Ephemer's hand drifts towards his neck and the cord that hangs there, fingering the bluish turquoise crystal charm attached to it. His face is pale, his eyebrows knitted together in concern. "Can't you do anything?" he asks, looking imploringly at the small Dream Eater. "Aren't you supposed to eat nightmares?" 

“I’m doing everything I can!” Chirithy replies indignantly. “At least they don’t seem to recognize the dreams as memories. But I can see how disconcerted they are by them, even without understanding.”

Ephemer bites his lip and looks at the charm he’s been turning over and over in his hands. The cord is quite twisted now, and he watches as it unravels when he holds it out. Is he doing the right thing? Will this be best for them – for his best friend? Or is he just making things worse?

Your Chirithy seems agitated by his silence, hopping back and forth on their tiny feet. Ephemer glances up at them and sighs. “Thanks, Chirithy,” he says. “I… we’ll figure something out.”

Chirithy remains for a moment longer, seeming to deliberate their next words. “They… they called your name this time,” Chirithy says in a small voice.

Ephemer’s head snaps to attention. “ _What?_ ”

“In the beginning,” Chirithy explains in the same small voice. “They said your name a few times, then were quiet for a while until they screamed and woke up.”

Ephemer’s hands are white on the edge of the mattress, his heart pounding in his chest. “Did they say anything else?”

“No,” says Chirithy quickly. “They just sounded scared. They miss you a lot, you know.”

There’s the leaden feeling again, entombing Ephemer’s chest, constrictive, heavy. “You know why I can’t see them now,” he says, a quiver in his voice. He _can’t_. Told himself this is too important, that you’ll be happier not remembering, happier with new friends and new pastimes and new people to spend the evenings with after missions. He knows the risks of being a Union leader, of knowing the things he does. He can’t bring you into that. You didn't sign up for it, can’t know what you're getting into until it's too late to get out. If he goes to visit you, what if it brings up more terrible memories about the Keyblade War? And even if you don’t really remember, you might ask him questions he can’t answer, and he’s a terrible liar. Maybe once they get this Union leader stuff under control, and you’re no longer having the nightmares… would you even still want to be friends with him after so long apart?

At least for now, you’ll be much better off not knowing about the war or the foretellers or the Book. If there’s one thing worse than being away from you, it’s the thought of you getting hurt. 

Chirithy seems dissatisfied with Ephemer’s response, but doesn’t question him further. “I should go back,” they say, and with a _poof_ , the Dream Eater disappears to return to your side.

Ephemer clutches the crystal star close to his chest. Will you be able to feel, somehow, that he's thinking of you? 

* * *

“Nightmares?” There’s a quaver in Skuld’s voice as she repeats what your Chirithy just told her.

“Uh huh.” Chirithy looks out past the cliff edge towards Daybreak Town’s clock tower. “It’s hard seeing them like that… and I hate lying… but I know it’s for the best.”

Skuld nods, crouching down to Chirithy’s level. “It is,” she agrees, patting the fuzzy Dream Eater. “And it might be hard, but you’re doing a great job.”

Chirithy’s eyes crease happily. “Of course! We’re best friends.”

Skuld smiles down at them. “I can tell.”

Behind the two of them, Ephemer speaks up. Unlike Skuld, he doesn’t seem surprised at the news that you’re having nightmares, just concerned. “Chirithy,” he says, “don’t forget about your task.”

Chirithy nods. “I won’t! Union χ [cross], right?”

Skuld nods, the calming presence between the three of them. “That’s right. New adventures with friends is a great way to bury sad memories deep within one’s heart.”

Ephemer’s eyes are distant as he gazes at the clock tower. “And we can’t stand to lose anyone now. The darkness in this world isn’t the same as what we faced in the other one.”

Skuld frowns as she looks back at him, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Chirithy hops from one foot to the other. “Different? How?”

He looks down at his shoes, at the blades of grass and the dandelions going to seed there. “It feels more… complex, like there’s more to it than meets the eye. Almost like it has its own will.”

Chirithy’s ears droop and Skuld is quick to comfort them. “Don’t worry; we’ll look into it,” she says reassuringly. “In the meantime, you know what your job is. Fill them in on what you can, okay?”

“Will do!” Chirithy says, waving goodbye to Skuld and Ephemer before turning and disappearing with a _poof_.

Skuld rounds on Ephemer. “What was that about? There’s no need to worry anyone until we know for sure what it is.”

Ephemer has the good grace to look a bit abashed. “I know,” he says. “I’m sorry. But this concerns everyone.” He gestures back towards Daybreak Town. “I get a really bad feeling every time something happens in this world that didn’t happen in the other one. This Union Cross business also feels… off. Something’s not right.”

Ephemer usually has good instincts but… Skuld can’t help but wonder if he’s just on edge at the moment. He’s sure to be upset at the news that you’re having nightmares, too – nightmares that, if Chirithy is correct, seem to be about things that you shouldn’t remember at all. Perhaps these things just need more time. 

“We were told to make it happen,” she reminds him. “It’s in the rules, remember?”

Ephemer scratches at the back of his head, then reaches under his scarf to place his hand over something there. “I know, but– ‘may your heart be your guiding key’,” he quotes, looking at the clock tower.

Skuld follows his gaze. “You’re worried about them.” It’s a statement, not a question.

Even without a name, Ephemer knows exactly who she’s talking about. His expression grows strained. “Well, it can’t just be one of the Dandelions having nightmares, either. What if everyone else is remembering too? Master Ava didn’t want them to have to carry that burden.”

Skuld shrugs, picking up a dandelion off the ground and twirling the stem in her hands. She’s not sure if she should tell him she suspects it might just be you having the nightmares – after all, none of the Dandelions here in this worldline had participated in the Keyblade War. It might even be harder for you to forget the painful memories because of how Skuld and Ephemer are sure to be caught up in memories surrounding the War. She suspects that’s why he hasn’t gone to see you yet either; he keeps telling himself that you’ll never be able to forget the trauma and horrors of that night if he comes back into your life. And Skuld… there’s a tangled mess of guilt inside her chest when she thinks about what she let happen to you. At least for now, it’s best to let the Chirithies take care of their wielders until they have things under control.

She’s not sure how long any of them can keep this up for, though. Being left without any of the foretellers, with their only guidance coming from a book none of them fully understand, seems questionable at best and downright unadvisable at worst. But what other choice do they have?

“‘May your heart be your guiding key’,” Skuld echoes, turning to Ephemer. “So, what is your heart telling you?”

The worry on Ephemer’s face makes him look older, tired. She doesn’t often see his usual mischievous smile on his face anymore, not since they took up the role of Union leaders together. “It’s telling me that this world isn’t exactly the safe haven we’d hoped it would be,” he says grimly, hand still clasped beneath his scarf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out we're all very lucky I've been keeping my writing saved in Google Drive recently, as my computer decided to bite the dust on the weekend. It looks like I have to replace the GPU -_- I've had pretty rubbish luck with technology this year, honestly. And I only bought this computer in November!
> 
> Anyway, for now I've got my 6-year-old laptop chugging away to bring this latest chapter to you~ I _swear_ we're working towards super fluffy stuff eventually ^^; It's interesting exploring other perspectives more while the characters are apart, though.
> 
> Fingers crossed my laptop survives into next week for the next update! If anything comes up I'll make a post on my KH Tumblr [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com). Thanks for reading!


	4. Extreme Encounters

It happens so quickly.

One moment you’re facing down a Heat Saber Heartless, rolling out of the way of its fiery, knife-shaped arms as you wait for a chance to unleash a devastating round of Blizzard magic, and the next moment the flaming sword on its arm isn’t a sword at all but a keyblade, and its jagged mouth and blank yellow eyes are the mirror-smooth surface of a keyblade armour helmet, reflecting the fear in your eyes as their keyblade comes slicing towards you. You cry out and your keyblade disappears from your hands in your terror, panic gluing you to where you stand, all the while the wielder’s keyblade comes closer and closer and it’s all as if it’s in slow motion and you’re falling backwards and you can feel the  _ whoosh _ of the metal as it slices cleanly through the air where you’d been, and then in another moment it’s no longer a keyblade but a hot, molten sword, and that wasn’t a keyblade wielder it was a Heartless, how could you have thought it was another person what is  _ wrong _ with you–

Your Chirithy calls your name from atop a nearby sand dune and you wonder if they saw you stumble, saw the panic in your face and the way your keyblade simply vanished from your grip. You shake your head and scramble to your feet. Luckily that was the last hit of the Heat Saber’s combo attack and it staggers off-balance for a moment, granting you the time you need to re-summon your keyblade and cast a Blizzard spell. You’d meant to cast something stronger but can’t find the energy to produce it, and the Heat Saber flinches but doesn't fall. Just as the Heartless is gearing up for another attack, your small Spirit companion (whom you've taken to calling Lucky) darts in to land a follow-up attack, vanquishing the threat and leaving behind a smattering of Lux.

You barely even notice your keyblade leave your grip as you investigate the place where the Heat Saber had fallen. That was… that  _ was _ a Heartless, wasn’t it? Maybe all this desert sun is getting to you. You've had missions in Agrabah all week. Your hand shakes and you curl it into a fist to quell the tremors. You’re covered in a cold sweat despite the heat, your clothes sticking unpleasantly to your back.

There’s a small nudge somewhere around your shins and you startle violently, almost falling over onto the sand again. “I’m sorry!” your Chirithy says quickly. “I just thought--I mean you looked--are you all right?”

You look down at your companion, your breathing much shallower than you would have liked. You realize you have one hand raised as though to summon your keyblade back to defend yourself and lower it sheepishly to your side, avoiding Chirithy’s gaze.  _ I’m fine, _ is what you’re trying to say but that’s wrong, you’re not fine; you’re not even really sure what happened. You look from side to side nervously, feeling like another Heartless could come jumping out from beneath the sand at any moment. “What’s the… er, I mean, today, the… what’s today’s target?” The words stumble over your lips on the way out.

“It was the Heat Saber,” Chirithy says, hopping around to stand in front of you. You feel their eyes on your face and it’s making the back of your neck prickle as though Chirithy  _ knows _ what you saw except Chirithy can’t know, it wasn’t really a keyblade wielder, you’re just being silly and overtired and the desert heat and exhaustion is making your brain do strange things.

“I think I want to go home,” you say, and realize just a moment after you say it that you worded it all wrong and now Chirithy is going to be worried. No time to think on that now. You turn away and summon your keyblade, focusing on opening a portal back to Daybreak Town.

You arrive in front of the fountain, as always. There’s no Skuld and no Ephemer here waiting for you. You suppose they’re always busy with Union leader stuff. It’s just been you and Chirithy ever since Skuld left for her leader duties. You have some other friends in your party that you’ve been doing the occasional mission with, but you never hang out with them outside of missions the way you did Skuld and Ephemer. With a sigh you turn away from the fountain and make your way up the stairs back to your home. 

* * *

Chirithy appears quietly on your windowsill, trying not to wake you. By virtue of being a Dream Eater, Chirithy can often sense when you're sleeping, or when you're having a bad dream. You seem to be sleeping peacefully at the moment, something that's becoming more and more rare. Your other Spirit companion, the one you call Lucky, is curled up at the foot of your bed in the form of a rainbow-colored dog. They twitch softly as they sleep, hopefully drawing any nightmares away from you so you can rest. 

You hadn't been quite yourself today. Chirithy knows the nightmares are getting worse, but at least you can leave those memories behind in the morning and continue as normal. This time though, it was as though you'd seen a ghost instead of a Heartless in front of you on today's mission. You're normally so focused when you're on a mission, taking out Heartless with a kind of practiced ease, but Chirithy had felt the panic radiating off of you. Was it just a small slip-up? Or something more? 

Chirithy turns to look out the window at the rest of Daybreak Town, gazing up at the clock tower. Should they tell Ephemer? It hasn't been long at all since Chirithy last reported to him. Your nightmares have been happening more often than not this month, and Chirithy knows your friends are worried about you. Should Chirithy tell them about today's episode, or will it just worry them more? It could just be a one-time event, after all. And Chirithy has seen the way Ephemer blames himself for being unable to stop at least the nightmares. Better to wait to see if anything happens again before Chirithy worries him. Chirithy takes one last look at you sleeping soundly before disappearing in a cloud of white. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray my laptop is holding up surprisingly well, so I have another chapter to bring to you~ If I'm lucky, I might have a replacement GPU sometime next week to get my usual computer up and going again.
> 
> Important news regarding Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory -- I'm "going dark" so to speak with regards to KHMoM news, so I haven't looked at any of the recent updates/art/music/etc and I don't plan on finding out any more information than I already know. Hence, I'm currently on break from social media like my KH Tumblr [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com). No spoilers, please! 
> 
> I did this for KH3 as well mostly because I don't trust squeenix to not reveal important information like plot events or gameplay (such as playing as other characters). And I'd rather find out about those things as I play, instead of having my first experience of them be out-of-context before the game is released. So, consider me off-the-radar for KHMoM, though I'll be keeping up with any KHUx and KHDR updates as they become available. Can't wait until November!


	5. Left Behind

"Brain, can I ask a… a favour?" 

Brain frowns to himself, spinning around his chair to face the boy standing behind his desk. Ephemer looks distinctly ruffled, tapping his finger nervously against his arm as he waits for his fellow Union leader to respond. 

"What kind of favour?" Brain cocks an eyebrow at him. 

Ephemer glances at the monitors lining the walls of the control room. There are dozens of them, each displaying a different part of the data worlds that had been so carefully reconstructed for the Dandelions. He scuffs his foot along the floor. "I was hoping you could check in on one of the, um, Dandelions. They're in Union Anguis." 

"Someone in trouble?" Brain asks in a rather disinterested tone, turning his chair back around to face the computer he'd been using. "Or is there someone we should be suspicious of?" 

"No!" Ephemer says quickly, moving to stand beside Brain. "No, nothing like that. It's just someone who's been having a hard time adjusting to things post-Keyblade War."

Brain makes a few quick strokes on his keyboard. "This person got a name?" He casts a side eye at Ephemer, whose shoulders visibly relax at this request. He gives Brain a name, which he types into the program he's opened on the desktop. 

"Looks like they're supposed to be on a mission in Enchanted Dominion today," Brain says, tapping his fingers lightly on the keyboard. The screen switches to show several different angles of the same forest. Brain flips through the images quickly until he catches sight of a disturbance, then sorts through still more images to get a better view. "This the one you're looking for?" he asks, jabbing a finger at the screen in front of him, where a Keyblade wielder is fighting a Heartless in a forest clearing. 

"Yes!" Ephemer says, leaning in close to the monitor. "Yes, that's them." The wielder – you – dismiss your keyblade as you defeat the final Heartless and your Chirithy appears next to you. You turn to speak with your companion, crouching down to their level. 

Brain glances up at Ephemer, whose gaze is glued to the monitor. "That's good," he's saying to himself, nodding. "Good to know." He looks over at Brain. "Is there any way we can be notified if something happens to this wielder on their missions? Like if they collapse, or are in trouble…" 

Brain raises an eyebrow with a small smirk. "Is there a reason for your interest in this person?" 

Ephemer's eyes widen. "Oh!" he says, suddenly taking a step back from the desk and blinking a few times. "Well, like I said, they've been having trouble adjusting after the war. And, I… we used to know each other before so I'm just worried is all."

Ephemer seems to shrink a little under Brain's searching gaze, tugging at his scarf and looking away. Brain turns back to the computer. "Aside from checking in now and then, there's no real way of monitoring them." He gestures to the screen, where you can be seen continuing to make your way through the forest, your Chirithy hopping along by your side. "Besides, your friend seems to be doing fine. They look pretty tough." Ephemer purses his lips, but nods. Brain supposes this person must be pretty special for him to go out on a limb to make sure they're all right. 

"I understand," Ephemer says. "I appreciate your help. I'm sure you've got other things to do, so I'll head out." 

Brain watches him leave, then props his feet up on the desk and brings up the stream following you and your Chirithy again. You don't look particularly important. And Union Anguis too… as far as Brain knows, Ephemer had been Union Unicornis, which rules out the possibility that you'd been a fellow party member. 

Something catches his eye and he switches to another view before zooming in on the feed. You've got some kind of crystal necklace on. It glints in the sunlight as you investigate the forest. Hmm. Could just be another of the many accessories sold by the Moogle shops, but it looks more handmade than that. Brain isn't sure what to make of it, in any case. He closes the feed just as you summon your keyblade to take care of a Fluttering Heartless, then leans back in his chair, arms behind his head. All this Union leader business can be exhausting.

* * *

On your way home from your mission, you decide on a whim to pass by the clock tower. Lucky gives a little chirruping sound of confusion when you turn the other way instead of going home. "Oh, don't give me that," you chide as your spirit companion looks at you imploringly. "I'll be home soon. You're welcome to go back before me." 

Lucky sits on the cobblestones and scratches at their ear for a moment before begrudgingly following you. You're glad to have them with you, in any case. Ever since the incident with the Heartless in Agrabah you've been wary of fighting the more humanoid Heartless, Heat Sabers and their ilk in particular. You're probably just being silly and yet… you can't help but feel anxious at the thought of it. Lucky acts as a small safety cushion in case you freeze up or run into trouble. 

Without hardly realizing it, you've arrived at the foot of the clock tower. You put your hand on the stone wall, remembering briefly all the time you'd spent investigating this place with Ephemer. Does he live up there now, as one of the new Union leaders? Is Skuld there too? Chirithy tells you they're busy and that they say they'd like to see you when their schedules aren't so full, but you wish you could see them in person now, even if just for a moment. 

A girl with blonde hair passes by you, talking with her Chirithy. She smiles briefly at you when your gazes meet before turning back to her companion. At least people have become friendlier, you muse as you continue walking along the base of the clock tower. When everyone thought there was some huge war coming they became angry and hostile towards one another. You're not sure what changed but… well one day they appointed the new Union leaders and that seemed to calm everyone down, you suppose. You can't quite shake the feeling that something else is different too, something besides just a change in leadership, but it's probably just all the extra mission types and activities that have been introduced these last weeks. Now there are Union Cross missions for parties and extra things like your new Spirit companions and additional ways to improve your keyblade before heading out on missions. 

And all those things are good too, you suppose. They keep people busy. And the Union Cross missions mean you have to work together, often with people outside your party, in order to defeat a common foe. The competition between Unions doesn’t seem as fierce as it was just a few… weeks ago, you think it was. There’s still friendly rivalry, but it doesn’t have the edge to it that it did back then. 

The foretellers haven’t been around for a while, but everyone says it’s so that the new Union leaders get settled, so it hasn’t bothered you that you haven’t seen them. Your Chirithy still gives you your daily mission as always, and lately you’ve been getting some weekends off, one of which you spent at the beach with a couple of your party members.

This close, you can hear the  _ whoosh _ of the clock tower’s unusual pendulum and the faint grinding sounds of its gears. Would you be able to request an audience with the new leaders the way you were able to sometimes speak with the foretellers? Or perhaps that would be too selfish, seeing as what you really want, rather than to consult with a Union leader, is just to see your friends again. They’re busy; you know that. But it’s been so long and you’d give anything for a quick “hello” and a “it’s nice to see you again”.

A small part of you wonders cruelly if they just don’t want to see you – perhaps they’re putting it off; it’s been too long and they have other friends. And you wonder if you, too, should be building new friendships up from scratch and stop worrying so much about the old friendships, especially if you can’t be around them anymore. It’s just… friendship with Ephemer and Skuld felt  _ different _ somehow. Special. Important. It felt like you were each the most important person in the others’ lives. 

And yet here you are beneath the clock tower, alone. Well, that’s not true. You have your Chirithy, too. And then there’s your spirit companion as well. You’re glad to have Lucky around, of course. You lean down to pet the small creature on the head and they chirrup happily at your touch. And Chirithy’s been your steadfast companion throughout it all. You wouldn’t give them up, either. So you’ll hold onto the hope just a little longer that you’ll see your old friends again.

* * *

Chirithy can sense your distress even without being next to you. Immediately they reappear at your side, hoping to do something to help.

Your Spirit, Lucky, is there too, pressing their face on top of your arm, trying to quell the twitching movements you’re making. Their ears droop, and their big eyes look worriedly from you to Chirithy.

Chirithy approaches you too and gets a glimpse of the nightmare you’re experiencing – keyblade wielders, striking each other down. They put a gentle paw on your other shoulder and concentrate hard on pulling the nightmare away, towards themself. You twitch again and there’s a flash of light by your dominant hand as though you just tried to summon your keyblade. 

“No, no… I can’t… they shouldn’t…” you whimper quietly. You twitch violently and bring your arms up to cover your face. “No… please…”

It’s awful, seeing you like this. Chirithy redoubles their efforts to pull the nightmare away and can sense it dimming, becoming fainter, as they tug it out of your mind. Your breathing is shallow and uneven and your face is scrunched up in distress, but you seem to be doing better; if Chirithy can just reclaim the nightmare from you…

_ Success. _ Lucky looks over at Chirithy from across you and wags their fluffy tail with a soft  _ flump flump _ that’s muffled against your covers as you settle back against the mattress, the tension slowly leaving your body. You open your eyes and stare at the ceiling for a moment as your breathing evens out, then pull yourself into a sitting position and notice both Lucky and Chirithy by your side.

Your eyes study both your companions for a moment and then you look down at your lap, bringing your hands up as though to inspect them. 

“Are you okay?” Chirithy asks, looking anxiously up at you.

You purse your lips and touch a tentative hand to your chest, over your heart. “Was it all… a dream?” 

Chirithy hops away to take up their post on the windowsill as usual. “You looked like you were having a nightmare,” they explain. “Why don’t you take it easy today and get some rest?”

You nod slowly at Chirithy’s words and then your gaze falls on Lucky, who takes the form of a sleek black cat and approaches you to rub their head against your elbow. You scratch them between the ears and look back to Chirithy. “I think I will. How long was I asleep?”

“No longer than usual.”

You nod once more. “Okay. Yeah. ‘Night, Chirithy,” you say, settling under your covers and turning onto your side to face away from the window. Lucky curls up in front of your chest, purring gently. 

“Goodnight…” Chirithy replies quietly. It’s better to keep these nightmares from you. Keep you from remembering the terrible things that had happened. Isn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well my new semester has started today and I'll admit I got so distracted I almost forgot it was Tuesday :P Anyway, new chapter, as always! We're slowly approaching some important events that will lead to the reunion of our lovely trio. I've really missed them. Thank you for reading, as always! I'll hold off on plugging my KH Tumblr since I'm doubling down on my efforts to avoid KHMoM spoilers, but I always do appreciate a nice comment ;)


	6. Scherzo di Notte

"Hey." Skuld's voice is soft, but Ephemer still jumps at the sound, his cheek unsticking from the page of the book he'd fallen asleep on. He looks around wildly for a moment until his gaze settles on her.

"Oh, Skuld, I…" He scratches at the back of his neck looking like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "...I didn't mean to fall asleep." 

Skuld waves a hand dismissively. "I didn't come to scold you. I just noticed the light was still on in the tower and thought I'd better check there weren't any stray candles left lit." Ephemer sucks in a breath – to apologize or explain, she doesn't really care – and she continues speaking before he gets a chance to. "You're overworking yourself again."

Ephemer looks down at the table and the rule book lying open on top of it, seeming to weigh something in his mind. "I don't like everything I read in this book," he says after a short pause, gesturing to its open pages. "I've been trying to figure out why the Foretellers would have left us these specific tasks, or whether or not we're just misinterpreting the tasks altogether."

Skuld leans against the side of the desk, looking over the part he'd been reading,  _ Shift Pride _ . Ah. Ephemer had confided in her that he wanted to speak to the others about it at their next leader meeting; no wonder he wants to have everything figured out before then. "Isn't that something we can discuss at the meeting later? You don't have to do all this leader stuff alone, you know." 

Ephemer tips back the chair he's sitting in so it's balancing on two legs. "I know. But as a leader, it's important I come to our meetings well-informed." He makes as though to turn to the next page, but Skuld puts her hand over his, gently but firmly closing the book. 

"Get some sleep," she says. "You'll need it." 

He sighs, but seems resigned. "You're right," he says, and the front legs of his chair make a  _ thump _ as they hit the floor again. He looks up at her, a small shadow of his usual grin on his face. "I don't know what I'd do without you to keep my head on straight." 

Skuld smiles back. "You'd still be sleeping here with your cheek stuck to the page, for one." She ruffles his hair affectionately and takes a step back from the table, beckoning him to the lift that leads up to their new Leaders quarters in the clock tower. 

The chair scrapes along the wood floor as Ephemer pushes it back and blows out the candles at the desk. There's slanted moonlight shining in the windows on the other side of the room, and Skuld pauses to glance down at the little houses nestled below the tower as she waits for him. At this height, they're little more than a collection of purple roofs and cobblestone streets. Now that it's just the Dandelions, how many of those houses are vacant, waiting for an owner who will never come home? 

It’s already been some time since the Keyblade War. A few weeks; perhaps more than a month. Are they doing a good job as the new Union leaders? Skuld plays with one of her earring stud, a faraway expression on her face. She glances over at Ephemer, neatly replacing the books he’d taken out back on a shelf. She’s glad she has at least one friend here through this madness. Her gaze slides back out the window, down to the purple rooftops and neatly organized flowerbeds. ...She misses you, too. A lot. But what if she goes to see you and you start to remember all the horrible things that happened in the War? What if you’ve forgotten parts of your friendship? What if you’re upset she hasn’t come to visit in over a month? Skuld’s not even entirely sure how the Dandelions have come to understand the strange gap between the pre-war and post-war periods. Missing friends, missing Union members. She knows the Chirithies are taking care of it, but no solution is a perfect solution.

“You look lost in thought,” Ephemer remarks from just behind her, causing Skuld to jump a little. He chuckles quietly at her response, tugging at his scarf. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to spook you.”

She shakes her head to clear it. “I’m just sleepy, I think,” she says. “We should go.”

Ephemer nods and the two of them leave the room, stepping onto the lift just outside that takes them to the upper floors that are their new home. 

A sudden  _ poof _ gives Skuld a start as they step into the hallway at the top of the lift. “Ch-Chirithy!” she exclaims, looking down at the small Dream Eater. Even your Chirithy seems a bit startled to have come across the two of them.

“Oh,” they say, their ears twitching. “I didn’t realize you were both here. I was looking for you.” They glance up at Ephemer, whose eyebrows draw together in concern. He crouches down next to them. 

“What’s wrong? Is it…” He says your name quietly, like he’s worried one of the other Union leaders, asleep in their rooms off this hallway, will hear. 

Chirithy, hops back and forth on their tiny feet, looking agitated. “The nightmares are getting more frequent. And I thought I should tell you that something weird happened on one of the missions last week. We were in Agrabah and they just sort of froze up while fighting a Heat Saber. Their keyblade vanished and their Spirit companion had to land the final blow. I wasn’t sure what was wrong.” Skuld and Ephemer exchange a worried look, then Ephemer nods and motions for Chirithy to continue speaking. “I thought maybe it would be a one-time event but with the nightmares and that time they passed out in Enchanted Dominion… I’m not so sure.”

There’s an almost pained expression on Ephemer’s face, his lips pursed and his gaze cast to the side. Skuld puts a hand on his shoulder and he looks over at her. “I’m sure they’re okay,” she says, but even she’s having doubts. “Chirithy’s doing their best, right?" She turns to the small Dream Eater. "Thank you for coming to tell us.” She manages a smile at Chirithy, trying to look reassuring.

Ephemer exhales a long breath and rubs at his face as he stands once again. He nods, seemingly to himself more than to Chirithy or Skuld. “Yeah,” he says, “yeah, you’re right. Thanks a lot, Chirithy.” A ghost of a smile appears on his lips. “Let us know if there’s anything else. We’ll try to figure out something ourselves, too.”

With a last little hop, Chirithy vanishes. Ephemer turns to lean against the wall, running his hand through his hair, wild-eyed. “It’s not working,” he murmurs. “The Dandelions aren’t supposed to remember. What if they remember all the terrible things that happened? What if they remember all the hurt and the suffering and it’s too much?”

Skuld understands ‘they’ to mean you, though Ephemer tries to mask his concern by generalizing it to mean all the Dandelions. “We don’t know if anyone else has remembered,” she reminds him, tilting her head to catch his gaze. “It might just be them.”

“But that’s…” His shoulders tense, his hand raised as though gesturing to the ceiling. “That’s  _ worse _ . Think of what they went through. Who they had to fight. The friends and Union members they would have seen get struck down. The other Dandelions would have to live with the sadness and loss, but  _ they’d _ have to live with the scars and the memories. I didn’t… I don’t want that. They should be able to make new friends, go on new adventures. Isn’t that what we’re doing Union [cross] for? Isn’t that what the new Spirit companions are for?”

He looks desperate for reassurance but Skuld isn’t sure how to give it to him. There really might not be anything that can be done for you further than what they’re already doing. She puts a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright,” she says. “We’ll figure things out.”

Ephemer opens his arms slightly and then they’re hugging, her face buried in his scarf, tired and stressed and worried all together. Ephemer takes deep breaths as he holds her, his breath tickling the back of her neck. Then he steps back, looking more composed. “You’re right,” he says, nodding. “We’ll figure things out. Thanks, Skuld.”

She smiles and he gives her a small smile back. “Get some sleep,” she says. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

He nods again. “‘Night, Skuld.”

“Goodnight, Ephemer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rejoice, I finally got my GPU replacement! So my PC is up and working again, whew. I'm very proud of my old laptop for carrying me through the weeks until I got it lol.
> 
> This is a chapter I wrote relatively early on, actually, though it's undergone some modifications as the story evolved around it. I've never really done this writing-out-of-order thing before so it's been kind of fun revisiting chapters I wrote earlier and finding that the story or characters have developed in a slightly different direction from what I'd imagined. I'm slowly filling in some of the gaps between chapters I wrote during NaNoWriMo last November to make it more cohesive, and it's nice to see it come together!
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! :)


	7. Disquieting

Ephemer thumbs the page of his rulebook idly as he thinks, the words blurring as he rereads them without really comprehending. Shift Pride… why would the Foretellers ask something like this of them?

He hears the click of a door latch and looks up from the book to see Skuld enter. She studies his face and her eyebrows pull together. “What’s up?” she asks. Ephemer supposes he must look flustered.

He dismisses her worry with a wave of his hand. “Caught up in my thoughts.” 

Behind her, Brain enters as well, followed by Ven. Brain, as usual, looks rather unimpressed. “What did you want to talk about?” he asks. “I’ve got books that need reading.” He shakes a book in his hand for emphasis.

“I’ll be quick,” Ephemer reassures him as he sets his rulebook back on the table. It’s funny; even though they haven’t been doing this Union leader thing for long, everyone heads to the same seats as though they have a personal claim to that spot. 

Ven pauses before he sits down, glancing at the only empty chair around the table. “Where’s Lauriam?” he asks, eyebrows drawn together.

“He’s not coming,” Brain says nonchalantly.

“What?” Ven looks at Ephemer and Skuld as though he hopes for another opinion.

“Then shouldn’t we do this some other time?” Skuld asks, frowning at Brain. 

Ephemer nods. “I’d prefer if all five of us were here for this.” They’re supposed to be a team, after all; if any of them decide to “step back” and allow the others to make decisions without them he’s worried this already stressful situation of running the Unions without the foretellers will become worse.

Brain shrugs and leans back in his chair. “Lauriam said you have his support, no matter what.”

“Huh?”

With his hat tipped low over his face, it’s hard for Ephemer to read Brain’s expression. “That’s what he told me to pass on,” Brain explains. “Guess he trusts you, Mr. Leader.”

Ephemer isn’t exactly sure why, but Brain’s casual remark rubs him the wrong way.  _ “Everyone _ here is a leader,” he says firmly. 

“Well, whatever. Let’s get this party started.”

“A-all right…” Ephemer sighs and shakes his head to clear it. He pushes his rulebook forward on the table, highlighting it. “When we became Union leaders, we all received a copy of the rulebook.” He opens the book and sifts through the pages until he comes to the one he’d been pouring over. “Do you remember reading about Shift Pride?”

Skuld nods knowingly as she takes out her rulebook as well and sets it on the table. Brain leans back in his chair. “You mean the part about keyblade wielders fighting each other? Sure. Why do you ask?”

There’s a commotion as Ven springs out of his seat, nearly knocking it over. “Wait. Keyblade wielders fighting each other?!”

“Didn’t you read the book, Ven?” Ephemer asks.

Heat rises to Ven’s cheeks. “I did, but…” He looks around and seems to feel uncomfortable with everyone’s gazes on him. “...I guess I didn’t realize what it meant,” he mumbles, sitting down once more and pulling his seat up to the table.

Brain seems unperturbed. “Isn’t it just a friendly competition? I think everyone could use a bit of entertainment. Besides, it’s not like we have much of a choice. It’s in the book.”

Ephemer sighs once more, tapping a finger along the pages of his book. “I know, but…”

“I disagree.”

Ephemer looks up in surprise to see that it was Ven who spoke, with much more conviction in his voice than usual.

Brain snorts. “Whoa Ven, stating an opinion outright? That’s a first.”

“This is serious,” Ven says, his voice a little quieter than before but still determined. “I don’t like the thought of wielders turning their weapons against each other.”

Ephemer notices Skuld biting her lip. She seems deep in thought as she looks down at her book. “I… I’m against it too,” she says, looking up at Ven. “It only gives me a bad feeling.”

Brain gestures to Ephemer. “Well, it’s two against one. It’s up to you, Ephemer.”

“Up to me, huh?” Ephemer muses, mostly to himself. He’s spent several days thinking about this, wondering what the best course of action is. More than once, one of his fellow Union leaders had commented on how seriously Ephemer seemed to be taking things. His first instinct is to agree with Skuld and Ven – the thought of making keyblade wielders turn their weapons on one another makes him uncomfortable. Even if the Keyblade War is over, what good can come of something like this? What were Master Ava and the other Foretellers thinking when they put it in the rulebook?

Earlier, Lauriam had come across Ephemer pondering this question and suggested jokingly that the foretellers might be pulling a prank on them. They wouldn’t do something so cruel of course, but it had helped lighten the mood a bit. Then he left to search for someone in the data for Daybreak Town.

The data... That’s it! They can’t just outright ignore the rules, but… maybe they can bend them a little. Ephemer looks around at his fellow Union leaders around the table. “...I think we should do what it says.”

“What?” Ven looks like he’s ready to spring up from his chair again.

“Are you sure, Ephemer?” Skuld looks almost hurt at Ephemer’s words.

“Well, Lauriam also agrees,” Brain says, standing up like he’s ready to call it a day. “So I guess it’s settled.”

“Not so fast, Brain,” Ephemer says, and Brain turns to look at him.

“What?”

“I said we should follow the book,” he repeats, “but I don’t want wielders fighting each other.” Brain looks like he's going to say something else but Ephemer continues before he has the chance to interrupt, “Remember how all the worlds were recreated as data after the Keyblade War? That means we were also recreated as data.” He pauses for emphasis. “All of us.”

Brain is the quickest on the uptake. “...Oh, I get it.”

Ven, however, is still lost. He looks back and forth between Ephemer and Brain. “Get what?” he asks.

“People don’t have to fight each other,” Ephemer says, a small smile on his lips. This is it – a way to avoid unnecessary infighting while still following the rules. “They can fight other wielders’ data instead.”

Brain returns to the chair he had vacated and tips it so he can lean on the back. “That way we can still follow the rules without actually hurting one another.” He catches Ephemer’s gaze. “Right?”

“Exactly.”

Ven looks relieved at this news. “I can agree to that!”

Skuld nods. “Yeah, me too.”

Brain has a smirk on his face. “It’s a clever plan and all, but… a little  _ too _ clever, coming from you.”

Skuld and Ven laugh a little at this, and Ephemer finds himself smiling as well. “Oh, you’re terrible,” he jokes. “Well, maybe I did have a little help from Lauriam.”

“Lauriam?” Brain asks.

“Yeah, a few days ago I was in here looking over the rulebook and Lauriam came by. He mentioned he was looking for someone he hasn’t seen around since the Keyblade War, so he thought he’d search the data for them since the worlds and people were recreated in data after the war.”

Skuld glances at Lauriam’s empty seat. “So, he’s looking for someone?”

Ven seems thoughtful. “I wonder who.”

“It seems like a private matter, so let’s not get involved,” Brain says firmly. “Not unless he asks us to.”

Skuld nods. “You’re right.”

“In any case,” Ephemer says, closing his rulebook once more, “we can thank Lauriam for this solution. I don’t think I could have come up with it on my own.” He gestures towards Lauriam’s empty seat. “Too bad he’s not here to take credit for it.”

With that cue, Brain stands up and begins to make his way over to the desk on the other side of the room. “I assume we’re done here, then?” he asks, looking at Ephemer.

Ephemer looks at Skuld and Ven in case they have something more to add, but Ven just shrugs and Skuld nods at him. “Yeah, that’s all for today. Thanks, everyone.”

Skuld walks over and leans against the table next to Ephemer’s chair. “It’s a good idea,” she says reassuringly. “You should take some credit, too.”

Ephemer scratches the back of his neck, cheeks glowing a bit pink at the praise. “Thanks, Skuld. I’m just glad we can follow the rules and make sure no one gets hurt.” He looks up at her. “I think I know why you were so against it. You were around when there were fights breaking out, right?”

Skuld looks down at her hands, twisting her fingers around each other. “Yeah. Not long before the war, I had to help break up a fight…” She tells him about the two keyblade wielders in the fountain plaza, and how you’d stood up to Master Aced and challenged him to a fight when Skuld’s resolve wavered. “I hated watching that,” she says. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Unseen by either of them, Ven surprises both Ephemer and Skuld when he suddenly speaks up from behind Ephemer. “What are you two talking about?” he asks, leaning against the table on Ephemer’s other side like Skuld. 

Skuld startles a little, then smiles warmly at Ven. “Just talking about one of our friends.”

“Oh, okay,” Ven says, then falls unusually quiet. “Have you guys visited anyone since we became Union leaders?” he asks after a few moments.

Ephemer exchanges a look with Skuld. “...No, not yet,” he says, eyes downcast. 

“Have you?” Skuld asks. 

“Um…” Ven shuffles his feet. “I don’t really have anyone to visit.”

Ephemer puts a hand on Ven’s shoulder. “Aw, it’s okay Ven,” he says, injecting a smile into his voice. “Once things settle down a bit with this leader stuff we’ll all have more time to relax and meet people.”

Skuld smiles too and nods. “Yeah!”

Just then, Ven looks up at something on the other side of the room. “Oh, hi there,” he says.

Ephemer and Skuld follow his gaze to see Lauriam enter. He nods at Ven and makes his way over to the three of them. “Good, you’re here,” he says, looking at Skuld.

“I didn’t realize you were going to show up so soon,” Ephemer says, gesturing to the rulebook lying on the table. “If I had, I would’ve waited to talk to you about Shift Pr–”

“Skuld, I need to ask you something.” Lauriam seems not to have heard Ephemer at all.

“Me?” Skuld asks, eyes wide.

“Yes. I’ve been looking for my sister, Strelitzia. She was part of the Dandelions, although it took quite a bit of convincing to get her to join them at first. I went to talk to someone who was in her party today, who told me my sister was particularly interested in someone who hadn’t joined the Dandelions yet. She wanted to invite them to join, and was going to go find them right before she went missing. Her party member told me that this person Strelitzia was so interested in was last seen going into a vacant house with you, and she was going to go after them. This was all apparently before the bells rang.”

“Your sister?” Skuld frowns. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever met someone named Strelitzia… I wish I could be more help.”

Some of the energy seems to deflate out of Lauriam, but he does his best to smile at Skuld despite his disappointment. “No, it’s fine. Thanks anyway.” He looks past Skuld at Ephemer and Ven, as if just noticing them. “My sister has such a good heart,” he explains. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she accidentally got caught in the war trying to save this ‘someone’.”

“Oh, no…” Ven says quietly.

“If I may...” Over by the desk, Brain turns his chair around to face the rest of the leaders. “We know that until the bells rang, your sister was searching for this ‘someone’ to invite them to the Dandelions.” Lauriam nods, so Brain continues. “From this, we can deduce that your sister, who was already a member, didn’t see them at the Fountain Square during Master Ava’s speech. And if this person wasn’t there that day, there’s a good chance they fought in the Keyblade War.” He puts his book back on the desk and stands to walk a few paces closer to the rest of them.

“And another thing,” Brain continues. “Your sister was hesitant to become a Dandelion, and yet, not only did she join them, she wanted desperately for this ‘someone’ to join, too.” He shrugs. “Puzzling, isn’t it?”

Ephemer puts a hand on Skuld’s arm to get her attention. “Skuld…” he says quietly, “you don’t think… the person Strelitzia was looking for – someone who didn’t join the Dandelions, someone last seen with you – do you think Lauriam’s sister was looking for…?”

Skuld gasps. “Oh!” 

Lauriam glances quickly between the two of them. “You know who it is?”

They both nod. Ephemer reaches a hand under his scarf to hold the pendant there and exchanges a look with Skuld. “One of my best friends,” he says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun, we're getting reeeeeally close to a reunion, I promise ;) I've missed these three; it'll be great to have them all together soon. Thank you for reading!


	8. At Dusk, I Will Think of You...

There’s a knock at Skuld’s door even though it’s grown late. Frowning, she gets up from her bed to answer it.

“Hi, Skuld.” It’s Ephemer, also in his pajamas, his hair a fluffy halo of white around his head. There are dark circles under his eyes and he looks… anxious, Skuld concludes as she studies his expression. She opens her door wider to admit him without asking why he came and he crosses the room to sit on her bed.

She sits beside him and pulls her feet up to sit cross-legged, waiting for him to speak.

“So, about what Lauriam asked…” Ephemer starts, staring down at his hands. He kneads his palms against his knees.

“You want to go along too, right?” Skuld asks, and Ephemer’s head jerks up in surprise to look at her.

“What? Well, yeah but… I don’t know, Skuld. Chirithy keeps saying the nightmares are getting worse. I just… if they ask any questions, I don’t think I could really lie. And Master Ava said it’s better that everyone forgets the war.”

Skuld purses her lips and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, what’s the worst-case scenario?” she asks.

“Huh?”

“You know,” she says, “you said you’re worried they’ll remember the Keyblade War. What then?”

“Then… well then they’ll remember all the stuff they went through! Chirithy says they saw other wielders get struck down, had to fight some of the foretellers. You remember the state they were in when we got there. I don’t… want them to have to remember that.” Ephemer’s eyes are wide as he looks at Skuld.

“And?” she prods again.

“‘And’?” Ephemer asks. “What do you mean ‘and’?”

“And then what? You haven’t really answered my question.”

“Well then… if they remember the Keyblade War… I guess I’m worried that… I mean I haven’t…” He sighs and drops his chin into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. “I’m worried that means I’ve been a terrible friend,” he mumbles into his hands.

Skuld sighs as well and shuffles a little closer to him to put her arm around his back. “You did what you thought was best when you left. Whether or not it really was the best choice, you can’t go back and change it now.”

He drops one of his hands to his lap so he can tilt his head and look at her, then resumes staring at the floor. “If they remember the war then they’re also going to remember that I left without saying anything. And that I haven’t come to visit. And that we’ve been lying to them this whole time about the war.” He pauses. “I don’t think  _ I’d _ want to be friends with me after that.”

“All right, so that’s the worst-case scenario,” she agrees. Even though it hasn’t been as long since she was last able to spend time with you, she feels guilty too about not visiting since they became Union leaders. She worried about getting in the way of you adjusting to the new world, and then things got busy, and then she felt guilty about not contacting you… all repeating in a sort of vicious feedback loop. “But,” she continues, “holding off on visiting isn’t really going to change what happens for the better.”

“I guess I’d hoped the nightmares would go away and then maybe once we felt comfortable with our leader duties it would be the right time to visit…”

“Maybe this  _ is _ the right time to visit, though.” She tugs at his shoulder so he’ll sit up and meet her gaze. “I mean, Lauriam wants to meet them. Won’t it be easier if there’s a familiar face around to introduce them to each other? And afterwards you can spend some time with them and… see how it goes.”

“You’re the one that was there when Strelitzia was last seen, though.”

“So? I’ve told Lauriam everything I know.”

Ephemer shuffles a bit farther back on the bed and leans his weight on his hands behind him. “What if they ask me something I can’t answer?”

She shrugs. “Then you do your best. There’s no official rule that we  _ have _ to keep everything among the five of us. We agreed to let the Chirithies handle their wielders’ memories about the war, but this is just one person, Eph. You’re visiting a friend, not going out to deliver bad news. We’ll handle what comes when it comes.” She pauses. “You  _ do _ trust them to not talk to anyone else about the war even if they do find out, right?”

“Of course!” he says indignantly, leaning forward again to take his weight off his hands. 

“So then it’s settled. You’ll go introduce them to Lauriam.”

The dark circles seem to cast shadows on his face as he looks at her with wide eyes. “You think I should?” he says quietly.

_ “Yes.” _

Some of the tension seems to drain off his shoulders. “Okay. I’ll tell Lauriam we can go later this week. Maybe after the Shift Pride stuff is up and going properly.”

She nods and smiles at him. “I’m sure they miss you too.”

The corners of Ephemer’s lips twitch up a bit at that, but then he looks sombre again. “I dunno. I don’t think I’ve been a very good friend. And I guess I’m worried that if they  _ do _ remember, they won’t want to be friends. Which is totally their choice to make. But what if we’re only friends when I go visit  _ because _ they don’t remember?”

Skuld grabs one of the pillows beside her and swings it into Ephemer’s face. “You’re thinking  _ way _ too hard about this.” Ephemer makes a muffled “mmph” sound at being hit and wraps his arms around the pillow so he’s hugging it to his chest. “Tell you what,” Skuld says. “If they ask you something you can’t answer, I give you full permission to tell the truth. It’s obviously bothering you a lot that they might not remember and I think it’ll give you some peace of mind to know you don’t have to hide it.”

Ephemer raises an eyebrow. “I can’t imagine Brain liking that.”

“If Brain is upset I will personally give him a piece of my mind.”

That gets a small smile out of him. “You wouldn’t  _ really _ .” She shrugs, a mischievous sort of grin on her lips. Ephemer laughs at her expression. “Thanks, Skuld. I really appreciate your help.”

That looks more like the Ephemer she knew when he was in her party. “What are friends for?” she asks, opening her arms and gesturing for him to come closer for a hug. He complies, tackling her in a sort of sideways embrace and squeezing tight before letting go, but she doesn’t allow him to pull back immediately and holds him until she feels him relax more. “You really do need to take a breather,” she says when they pull apart, gesturing to the dark circles under his eyes. “You’re not yourself when you’re stressed out like this. Promise me you’ll try to get more sleep this week. Okay?”

Ephemer looks a bit abashed at her words. “I know. I’ll try.” His gaze meets hers and he’s quiet for a few moments, looking like he wants to say something else. “You’re sure you don’t want to come when I introduce them to Lauriam?”

She shakes her head. “I think you should go. It’s been a lot longer since you two have hung out. And if things go well, I’ll visit later.” She smiles. “But, tell them I miss them too, and we’ll see each other soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's title comes from the wonderful little piece of music that plays every time the sea salt trio is up on the clock tower eating ice cream. It seemed appropriate for this chapter :) Thinking of song titles -- I love some of the titles we got for the music in KH3! I haven't seen/heard all of them yet because I'm being reeeeally cautious about KHMoM news, but some of the titles like "Hearts as One" for the sea salt reunion? Just lovely. I also like "Edge of Existence", "Forza Finale", "Dawn of Hope", and "Secrets of the Night". I mean, for real, Yoko Shimomura's music is fantastic all the time but it's cool to have such interesting titles for them now. Might have to steal a few titles for future chapter titles~


	9. Always on my Mind

_ When I come to, let us meet _

_ With our usual words on the usual street. _

_ Ephemer!  _ You step out of your light portal into the fountain plaza and there he is, a wide grin on his face. A surge of emotion wells up in your chest and you unexpectedly feel as though you're about to cry. You haven't seen him since he… er… since before he became a Union leader? Chirithy told you he’s been busy with all the work that being a Union leader must entail. 

Something else tugs at the corner of your mind but you can't quite grasp it. 

Ephemer calls your name and you're suddenly drawn back to the present. He pulls you into a hug and it's  _ him _ , it's Ephemer, he's really here…You bury your face in his scarf and hold him tight. He hugs you closer in response, seeming to sense that you need it.

“It's been a while, huh?” he says after you pull back, scratching at the back of his neck and looking off to the side. “Hmm?” His eyebrows draw together in concern as he looks back at you and he raises his hand to your face, brushing his thumb along your cheek. 

You raise a hand to your cheek as well and are surprised to find yourself crying. “Huh? Oh…” You squeeze your eyes shut and open them again, wiping your tears with the back of your hand and trying to stifle a sniffle. “I'm sorry, I don't know what that was about…” Ephemer's hand lingers by your jawline, but he pulls it slowly away when you smile and shake your head at him. “I'm alright, I promise!” 

“It's really good to see you again,” he says, smiling back. There's something a bit different about him, but you can't quite place it. It's probably just because you've been apart for a while. “Things have been really busy, so I haven't been able to come see you until now. Looks like you're still working as hard as ever on your missions, huh?”

“Of course! Sounds like you've been hard at work yourself.” He was busy. Of course. All those times you wondered if he really did want to be friends, if maybe he’d been avoiding you, seem like silly worries. This is the friend you spent countless sunsets with, shared secrets and inside jokes and stories with. You shift your weight to the other foot. “Being a Union leader probably comes with a lot of responsibilities, right?” 

Ephemer tugs at his scarf and leans against the fountain wall behind him. “I guess I have had lots of things to do as of late…” His eyes have a bit of a faraway look.

You lean against the fountain wall as well and bump your hip against his. “Skuld too?” You can't help but keep your gaze on him, taking in his tousled curls, his favourite red scarf, his smiling cheeks that seem to have lost a bit of their roundness. It feels a bit like if you look away, he'll be gone again. 

“Yeah. Having her around has been a huge help.” He fidgets with the cuff of his glove like he needs something to do with his hands. “She said to tell you hello, and that she misses you.”

“Oh. Well, tell her I’d like to see her again too some time.” You shuffle your shoe along the cobblestones. “So… what brings you here?” Is it too much to hope he just came to see you? “Official leader business?”

That gets a small chuckle out of him. “I guess you could say that. I came to see you. And well, there's also someone who wants to meet you.” He glances up at the path that leads to the marketplace, and you follow his gaze to see a well-dressed boy with pink hair standing in the archway. “You know of the other Union leaders, right?” Ephemer asks you.

The boy and Ephemer seem to exchange a look and he walks over to the two of you. “It's nice to meet you,” he says, putting out a hand in greeting. “I'm Lauriam. I'm a Union leader, same as Ephemer.”

You step away from the fountain wall to shake his hand, introducing yourself in turn. “Nice to meet you, too.” It feels like you've stumbled upon some kind of exclusive Union leaders meeting, and you're a bit out of place. 

Seeming to sense this, Ephemer comes to stand beside you again and gestures to his fellow leader. “Lauriam has something he wanted to ask you.”

Lauriam's smile is warm as he turns his attention to you. “You don't mind?” 

“No, of course not. What's on your mind?”

Lauriam explains he has a sister, named Strelitzia, whom he’s searching for. Some of the people he’s talked to while looking for her mentioned that she was interested in someone. Both Lauriam and Ephemer seem to think that the person she was interested in… was you.

“I’m really sorry,” you say to Lauriam. “I don’t remember ever meeting a Strelitzia.” After a moment’s thought, you turn to the side and call out, “Chirithy?”

A familiar poof later and your fuzzy companion is by your side. “What’s–oh! Ephemer and… another Union leader?”

“This is Lauriam,” you explain. “He’s looking for his sister, Strelitzia. Do you remember if we met her while we were out on our missions?”

Chirithy shakes their head. “No, I’m sorry.”

You turn back to Lauriam with an apologetic expression. “I wish I could help you more.”

Ephemer puts a hand on your arm to reassure you. “It’s okay. I didn’t expect you’d know much about her, but it was worth a shot.”

Lauriam has a hand at his chin, thinking. “I don’t think it’s a complete loss; I realized something while we were talking.”

“Yeah,” Ephemer replies, exchanging a look with Lauriam. It feels like there’s something you’re missing. 

“Well, I’ll take my leave,” Lauriam says, smiling at you once more. “I have something to take care of.”

“Oh, okay,” you say. Lauriam takes a step back to leave and you glance towards Ephemer. “Do you two have to go so soon?”

Ephemer seems taken aback. “Huh? No, I want to spend the day with you. If you don’t mind, that is.”

“Of course I don’t mind!” The words spill out, maybe a little too quickly, but Ephemer's face lights up at your agreement. 

Lauriam watches your exchange with an amused expression, then addresses you directly. “Thank you for your time today. This may not make much sense to you, but please… keep my sister in your heart, okay?”

You nod. “I’ll do my best. It was nice meeting you today.”

“You as well. Take care,” he says, then walks back the way he came. 

You turn to your best friend. “So, where are we headed?”

“Well, there  _ was _ a certain place I had in mind…” Ephemer raises an eyebrow and pointedly glances off to the side. You can’t help a hopeful grin forming on your face as you realize what he means. “Ice cream’s on me!” he says, grabbing your hand to head to the Moogle shop.

* * *

“Kinda different being up here when it’s not sundown yet, huh?” you muse, taking a bite of your ice cream. “Not quite as nice a view without the sunset.”

Ephemer bumps his shoulder against yours. He’s elected to sit right beside you on the windowsill rather than stretching out like he usually does, but you hardly mind. His warmth against your side is a constant reminder that he’s really here, hanging out with you again. “The best part was always the company,” he replies.

His sincerity throws you off a little and you find your cheeks heating up. “Well uh, I only come for the free ice cream, so…”

“Oh, is that how it is?” Ephemer says, turning to you. He puts his face right up close to yours and peers into your eyes. “I’m just good for buying ice cream, huh?”

It’s getting near impossible to keep a straight face with him this close. “Mm-hmm,” you manage, pressing your lips together in effort not to smile.

Unexpectedly, he turns and takes a bite out of the ice cream you’d been idly holding in front of you. “Hey! Aw, no fair.”

“Buyers keepers!” he says, licking his lips. You shoot him your saddest puppy-dog eyes and he softens. “Oh, you can have a bite of mine too, then.”

You lean over and mime like you’re going to take a huge bite out of his ice cream… then lick from the bottom of the bar to the top instead.

“Joke’s on you,” Ephemer says, taking a bite out of the ice cream anyway, “your germs don’t bother me.”

“Nooo my one secret weapon!” you complain, burying your face dramatically in his shoulder. “What ever will I do?”

Ephemer pats your head gently. “There there,” he says. “It’s not all bad. Also–” you feel his hand on your wrist, moving it away from your body, “–you’re about to get ice cream in your hair.”

You pull away from his shoulder and take another bite of the salty sweetness. “Whoops. You saved me.”

“Oh good, the score is 2-1 now.”

“Two to–saving my hair from ice cream hardly counts!”

Ephemer shrugs, grinning from ear to ear. “Hey, you’re the one who said it. I don’t make the rules.”

“Alright well, the new rule is that it has to actually be a dangerous situation I’m being saved from for it to count.”

“Just think how dangerously sticky your hair could have been!”

You wave your ice cream in his face threateningly, pretending as though you’re going to get it on his hair. “You’d better watch–hey!” 

Ephemer leans forward and licks your ice cream bar like you’d done to his, albeit a little more messily since you’re waving the stick around. Some of it sticks to his nose. “You had to have seen that coming,” he teases.

You pull your ice cream back close to your body as if to protect it. “I have got to stop doing this to myself,” you chuckle, leaning forward to wipe the ice cream off Ephemer’s nose. He startles slightly, wide eyes studying your face, and your fingers catch against his jaw. “No, silly, you have ice cream on your face. One sec…” You use your thumb to wipe it off and then, without any napkin to wipe your hand on, lick the ice cream off your thumb.

Ephemer unexpectedly turns away from you and takes a bite of his ice cream. You do the same, eyeing him curiously, but he turns back towards you a few moments later with a smile on his face. “Ha, beat you,” he says, wagging his empty ice cream stick between his thumb and forefinger. 

You munch on the second-last bite of your own ice cream. “I’m just savouring mine,” you say, rotating your stick so that the remainder doesn’t fall off. You lean away slightly when you notice Ephemer seems to be eyeing the last bite, and he takes this as a cue to move over closer to you, one hand reaching out towards the ice cream stick.

“Nope, not gonna happen!” you say, struggling to pull the last bite towards your mouth as he tugs on your wrist to prevent you from eating it. “It’s miiiine!”

At last, you manage to finish off the ice cream and relinquish the empty stick to Ephemer, who cries out an anguished “nooooo” at his defeat, flopping the rest of his weight on you like a ragdoll. 

You chuckle at his theatrics, extracting an arm from under him to gently pat his back. “There, there, sunshine,” you say, echoing his earlier words. “It’s not all bad.”

He turns onto his back with his head in your lap and there's a small sort of shy smile on his face. "What?" you ask, perplexed by his sudden change in demeanor. 

He shakes his head. "Nah it's just… been a while since I've heard that nickname."

"Oh…" Maybe it sounds a bit childish, using nicknames now. Or he feels he's outgrown it. "I don't have to use it." You tuck some of his hair behind his ear. 

"No, no, that's not it!" He looks up at you with wide eyes, then purses his lips and looks down again. "I like it. It feels… familiar."

You fluff up his hair, a small smile coming to your lips. “...Okay.” His shoulder blade is digging into your leg; you push gently at his back to get him to lift up off your lap. “Sit up for a sec; I need to get comfier.”

Ephemer obliges, swinging one leg inside the lighthouse so he’s facing away from you and picks up the leftover ice cream stick he’d left on the windowsill, then drops both his and your stick on the floor next to him so they’re out of the way. After turning so you’re facing the same direction as Ephemer, you pat the space in front of you for him to shuffle back. He settles down comfortably in your lap and you raise your legs up onto the windowsill on either side of him. 

The overhead sunlight has finally made it past the top of the lighthouse and shines warmly on your side. Ephemer, without the edge of the lighthouse roof to block the rays from shining on his face, closes his eyes against the brightness. He looks very peaceful. You run your fingers through his hair and he lets out a contented sigh.

You sit like that for a long while, drawing your fingers gently through his curls. Eventually you decide to section off a few strands near his ear and fold them into a tiny braid like you’d done one other day long ago. This time, however, you just leave it at a single braid. The awkward angle at which you’d braided it from causes it to stick out a bit diagonally from his head, and you pat it down so it lies flatter. You’d missed this too – the comfortable quiet of just existing next to your best friend.

“I thought about you a lot while I was–while I was busy with Union leader stuff,” Ephemer says quietly, breaking the silence. He runs a finger along the braid you’d created. “I wanted to visit you sooner, but things were…” He trails off, and for a while you’re not sure if he’s going to finish the sentence. “...complicated.” 

“I’m glad you’re here now,” you say, looking down at him. “But… come visit once in a while when you can, okay? Even you probably need a break sometimes.”

Ephemer opens his eyes and looks up at you. He reaches his hand up like he’s waiting for you to give him something, so you jokingly poke at his palm. “Hmm?” you murmur in mild surprise when he grabs your finger and pulls your hand down in front of him. 

He traces along the lines in your palm, then splays your fingers against his, like he’s comparing the size of your hands. “I just want you to know that I never forgot about all the memories we made together.”

He seems oddly sombre, and you wonder briefly if there’s more to his words than you realize. You interlock your fingers with his and run your thumb along the side of his hand. “I know. You’ll always be my best friend.”

“Forever,” Ephemer agrees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reunion at laaaaast! And also the return of some tooth-rotting fluff, hehe. Gosh I missed writing about these two. The little poem from the beginning is from the end of Sora's story in Chain of Memories. The entire poem has been scattered throughout this story and Sound of the Sunset, if you've been paying attention ;) Thanks for reading!


	10. Forgotten Challenge

“I guess I should be getting back soon,” Ephemer says with a sigh, sitting up. 

You wrap your arms around him from behind, pressing your face into the back of his shirt. “Nooo already? It feels like you just got here…”

He strokes the back of your hand with his thumb. “Aw, it’s okay, peach. I’ll come back to visit soon.” The familiar nickname makes you smile, too. It's been a long time since you last heard him call you that.

Ephemer swings his feet around to the inside of the lighthouse and you do the same, lingering for just a moment longer on the windowsill next to your best friend. 

"You kept the charm," Ephemer says, and you follow his gaze down to the crystal star hanging around your neck.

"Oh… well yeah, of course," you say, a little embarrassed.

Ephemer pulls his own cord out from under his shirt and holds the turquoise star out in his hand. "Guess it really must work, huh? All that time and we're back here at this lighthouse together."

There's an unexpected kind of earnest hope in his voice, like he wants you to agree and say it must be the charm that brought you together again. "Oh, so  _ that's  _ the only reason you came to see me after all this time?" you tease. 

"Of course not!" he says vehemently, jumping off the windowsill to his feet. You do the same, albeit with less vigour, and busy yourself with opening the trapdoor leading to the stairs. His tone drops. "I really did miss you, peach."

You shake your head, descending down the first few steps before looking back up at him with a smile. "I'm just teasing. Coming?" 

Ephemer follows you down the stairs and out into the late afternoon sunlight. He walks so closely beside you that your arms bump up against each other, and after a few moments he shoots you an unusually shy smile and brushes his fingers against the back of your hand, a gentle request that you happily accept by putting your hand in his. 

“Are you still free in the evenings after your missions?” Ephemer asks as you walk through the marketplace. “I mean, I know you’re busy too and you won’t always have time to hang out, but maybe if things work out… I can’t make any guarantees, but I’d like to see you again.”

“Honestly Ephemer, if there’s a time you’re free to hang out I don’t mind changing my plans a bit to make it work. Between the two of us, I’m sure I have the more flexible schedule.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be fair of me to make you change your plans all the time.” Ephemer’s eyebrows draw together in concern. 

You give his hand a squeeze. “I’d consider it worth it if it means you can relax a bit more often!”

Ephemer nods. “I do think I should probably give myself a chance to step back every once in a while.” 

All too soon, it seems, you’ve arrived at the fountain plaza. “I guess you have to go, huh?” you say, turning to your friend.

He nods, an apologetic smile on his face. “Sorry I have to leave so soon. I’m really glad we got to spend the day together tho–hmm?” 

His gaze is suddenly drawn upwards, and you follow his line of sight to see… well, you’re not quite sure what it is. It looks almost like the clock tower is… rippling? It wavers and flashes as though you’re seeing it from underwater in the middle of a light show. The sky above the tower crackles with some kind of energy, and the swirling colours resemble a rift to another dimension. What in the world…?

“What  _ is _ that?” you ask, squinting at the clock tower. You glance over at Ephemer, and almost in sync the two of you summon your keyblades. Whatever it is, it seems like bad news.

He turns and studies your face, eyebrows drawn together, like he’s thinking hard about something. “You don’t have to come,” he says. “It could be dangerous.”

“I want to come. If it’s okay.” You’re not really sure what the rules are regarding non-Union leaders going to the tower, but… you don’t want Ephemer to face this alone.

He nods at you, a small smile on his lips. “I’d be glad to have you along. Let’s go.” He turns to head up the stairs towards the clock tower.

There’s a small  _ poof _ and your Chirithy appears in front of you. “Wait, wait!” they say, hopping back and forth in distress. “Where are you going?”

“There’s something going on at the clock tower,” you explain, following Ephemer up the stairs. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

You pause at the top of the stairs and exchange a look with Ephemer. “I’m sure,” he says to Chirithy. “We’ll deal with whatever comes up when we know more.”

You get the sense Ephemer isn’t only referring to whatever is happening at the tower, but can’t think of anything else he would be talking about. “We’ll be careful,” you reassure your Chirithy. “Stay safe.”

Chirithy looks at Ephemer one last time before disappearing into a white cloud. The two of you turn to continue towards the tower.

“What do you think it is?” you ask Ephemer as you hurry through the streets of Daybreak Town. 

He glances up at the clock tower with a grim expression on his face. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good. Some of the other Union leaders are at the tower; I’m worried they’re in trouble.”

Your mind jumps to Skuld, the other Union leader that you know of. You hope she’s alright.

A bit ahead of you, Ephemer suddenly skids to a stop, his keyblade drawn in front of his body. “What the–?!” Just past him on the bridge are box-shaped flying creatures with wings. ...Heartless? You’ve certainly never seen Heartless that look quite like this. Settling beside your friend, you ready your keyblade to fend off the new threat.

One of the creatures swoops down towards Ephemer, but just as he raises his keyblade to block its attack, it seems to flicker and reappear right in front of him, knocking him a few steps backwards. “You okay?” you call, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady him. The two block creatures seem to be repelled away from you by some unknown force and flicker in and out of visibility before disappearing altogether. 

A strange noise from behind you causes you to turn around, where more of the block creatures flicker into existence. “You don’t think these are in the tower, too?” Ephemer takes a swing at the creature closest to him, but instead of connecting, his Keyblade seems to pass through the creature and cause it to split into several smaller cubes before disappearing. These are no ordinary Heartless, if that’s even what they are at all. One of the creatures comes diving at you and you hold out your keyblade to block the attack, but it simply disintegrates into dozens of tiny cubes before it even reaches you. The third creature seems to vanish altogether before you can get a hit in.

“I don’t like this,” Ephemer says, lowering his keyblade and glancing around to make sure the coast is clear. Above you, the clock tower seems to tremble with some kind of energy. “Let’s keep going.”

In the pathways inside the clock tower, more Heartless seem to be gathering. The two of you make your way up the stairs towards the top of the tower, fending off Hook Bats and Search Ghosts along the way. Ephemer seems to know the way best, so you let him take the lead and keep an eye out to make sure you aren’t ambushed from behind.

All these stairs are starting to take a toll on your stamina. “Doesn’t… this place… have… an elevator?” You take a moment to catch your breath at the top of yet another flight of stairs.

“Yes, but someone seems to have taken it up to the top of the tower already,” Ephemer explains, sounding rather out of breath himself. “We’ll get on it as soon as we see it. You okay to keep going?”

You nod, standing up straighter. “Yeah, I’m fine. We need to find out if everyone else is safe.”

Ephemer opens a door at the end of the hallway that leads to a narrow walkway on the outside of the tower. You’re surprised to see just how high up you’ve come. An Armoured Archer Heartless appears partway down the path and shoots an arrow at you, which you deflect with your keyblade. “Watch out!” you warn Ephemer, firing off a Blizzard spell at the archer to keep your distance. The spell finds its mark and you push on towards the door on the other side of the tower.

Back inside, you notice a Gargoyle flying off into a round room with several gears set into the floor. Ephemer nods at you and the two of you chase it onto a large gear-shaped platform, when suddenly there’s a grindy clicking sound and the floor beneath your feet seems to shudder. 

You both come to an abrupt stop to catch your balance and the gargoyle flies off the edge of the platform and disappears into one of the hallways. Beside you, there’s a  _ poof _ and your Chirithy appears. “I’m not sure how I feel about coming all the way in here… are you allowed to bring someone who isn’t a Union leader?” they ask nervously.

Ephemer turns around. “We’re in the middle of an emergency; it can’t be helped.” He gestures to you and smiles. “Besides, I trust you.”

You smile back. “I don’t want to get you in trouble, but… I don’t want you to go alone, either. We need to find out what’s causing this.”

He nods. “We should hurry onwards.”

Just as you take a step forward, there’s another mechanical  _ click _ and the gears around you spring to life. Ephemer catches your hand to prevent you from falling as the platform shifts beneath your feet and starts to ascend up the tower, and your Chirithy disappears in a white cloud.

“I guess we found our elevator,” you say.

“Yeah; hopefully we’ll find the others soon.” He tilts his head towards the ceiling, trying to make out your destination, but it’s too dark and the elevator is going too fast to make sense of anything.

The platform grinds to a halt just below a central column with several scientific-looking readout meters on it. Just off the side from the elevator, a young boy with short messy blond hair is fending off some of the unusual box creatures from earlier. Ephemer rushes to help him and you follow, slashing your keyblades at the monsters to get rid of them.

“Ephemer! Thank goodness!” the boy calls, quickly checking behind himself to make sure the creatures are all gone. Unusually, he’s holding his keyblade, Missing Ache, backhand. He relaxes his stance and walks over to the two of you.

“Ven!” Ephemer says, lowering his own Keyblade. He seems familiar with this boy. “What are you doing here?”

The boy – Ven – eyes you curiously as he turns to answer Ephemer. “Well, we were sitting around talking, when suddenly Master Ava appeared – or something that looked an awful lot like her – and, um…”

Ephemer notices Ven looking at you and puts a hand on your elbow to move you by his side. “This is my friend,” he explains with a quick introduction, gesturing to you.

Ven’s eyes widen in surprise as he looks between you and Ephemer. His gaze lands on the braid still sticking out of Ephemer’s curls, and then at the hand Ephemer has protectively on your arm. “Oh,” he says, “you’re  _ that _ friend.” He shoots you a bright smile and offers a hand. “I'm Ventus, but you can call me Ven.”

“Ven’s one of the other Union leaders,” Ephemer explains quickly to you as you shake hands. To Ven, he asks, “So what happened next?”

“Oh, right,” says Ven. “I thought Brain might know something so I came looking for him.”

“Brain’s in the control room?”

“Yep.” Ven turns to look at the large wall of gears behind him. 

“ **ņ̷̛͔̩̲̤̮̇̎̎̈́̚͟O̻̩̪̤̠̻̍̅̾͆̚͠͡ͅT̸̜̩͈̺̺̎͒̑͛͂̋.̗̠͕̪̣̾̾̎́̕͟͞.̡͇͈̼̟̭̿̐̿̇̈̚.̘͍͚̩̭̟͕̇̏̽̾̍͂̒̆̒ͅy̶̢̼̩̟̹̬̖̓̔̀̓̇͐͠͞͠ͅŌ̢͓͔͚͎̘̃̇͛̎͜ū̸͎͖̩͍̟̟̦̱̏̑̈́͐̕̕.̛̬̘̟̤̙̽̈͊͒͢ͅ.̧̲̤̱̼̖̠͍̈́̃̈̆́̄̋͜͡.̶̛̲̱̪̪̦͉̊̌̐̓́̋̎** ”

An unsettling hiss comes from behind you and you spin around to see a trio of dark, animal-like creatures with glowing eyes appear and circle around the three of you. These creatures… you’ve seen them before, with… Skuld? The memory is a bit indistinct, but you’re sure you’ve seen them before. “Get ready!” you shout, dropping into an attack stance. Behind you, Ephemer catches your eye and gives a quick nod. You know he’s got your back.

The creature in front of you twitches, its claw-like hands clenching and unclenching to an erratic rhythm. Without warning, it lunges for you and you swing your keyblade upwards to block the attack, catching it in the chest and knocking it backwards towards the other end of the room. It twists unnaturally to face you again, scuttling along the floor with its claws outstretched. 

“Blaze!” you shout, sending a ball of fire at the creature that knocks it off its feet once again. Seemingly dazed, it turns around and scampers back towards the shadows and out of sight.

“DUCK!” The shout comes from behind you and you instinctively crouch to protect yourself. One of the creatures soars over your head, followed immediately by a spinning keyblade that collides with it and sends it flying. You turn to see Ven summoning his keyblade back to his hand after throwing it. 

“Thanks!” you say, giving him a thumbs-up. 

“No problem!” he replies cheerfully, spinning his keyblade around his hand before catching it again. 

Standing up, you turn and see that the creature that had nearly attacked you has also fled. Ephemer exchanges a look with you. “Did they all just leave?” he asks.

You shrug. “I guess so. The one I was fighting ran off after I got a few good hits in.”

The three of you cautiously lower your keyblades. “Where do you think they–”

He’s interrupted as a loud static sound echoes through the tower, accompanied by distortion and strange flashing lights. By the wall, three more of the odd box creatures from earlier flicker in and out of sight.

“What’s going on?!” Ven asks, bringing his keyblade up again into an attack stance. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the light show dies down and the flickering creatures vanish.

“Something might be wrong in the control room, too,” Ephemer says, staring up at the wall with all the gears. One gear in particular has a keyhole set into the center. 

Ven looks back at him. “Do you think Brain’s okay?”

“Let’s go and see,” Ephemer replies, holding up his keyblade with both hands.

You glance worriedly between the two of them. “Ephemer, are you sure it’s alright that I come too?”

Ephemer smiles reassuringly at you. “Yeah.” He raises his keyblade straight in front of him and a beam of light bursts forth that causes the clock gears on the wall to begin moving. This time, you’ll be facing the dangers to come together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the adventure continues! I missed these two so much. I'm still baffled canon doesn't have more content of them -- did you know the reunion scene first came out January 2019? It's been nearly two years and we're still Ephemer- and Skuld-less running around in Sugar Rush. The most recent (jp) update was interesting, but still hasn't explained much. I must admit though I did find it somewhat comical how all the characters spent a solid ten seconds watching Lauriam limp over to Ven to throttle him. Like given how upset he was and how he acted towards Brain they had to have seen that coming but they all kind of stand there :P


	11. Shaded Truths

Ven and Ephemer rush ahead, calling for Brain. You trail behind, shocked into silence at the sight of the room you’ve just wandered into. The high ceiling towers overhead, and the walls are covered with what appear to be dozens upon dozens of computer monitors, each showing a different location. Wait a second–you know these places. That’s… Agrabah; there’s the bazaar, and the desert… And that’s the inside of Beast’s Castle. These are all… what is this room supposed to be?

On the other side of the room a boy, his face barely visible beneath dark hair and a hat positioned low on his head, pushes his chair away from a giant monitor and turns to see what all the commotion is. “Ephemer, Ven,” the boy says, standing up and walking over to them. You linger by the doorway, not entirely sure where you should be standing in all of this. “And… who’s this?” the boy asks, glancing past Ephemer to look at you. 

Ephemer turns and smiles reassuringly at you, motioning you over. “This is my friend, the one I mentioned before,” he says, putting a hand on your back to bring you forward and introduce you.

You think you see a flicker of recognition on Brain’s face beneath his dark hair, but then the expression turns into a smug sort of grin and he tips his hat at you. “The name’s Brain,” he says, notably not approaching to shake your hand. “Pleasure.”

This must be the last Union leader you haven’t met. “Likewise,” you say, nodding at him. 

Ephemer steps slightly in front of you to address Brain. “More importantly, Brain, what’s going on? Some strange things are happening outside.”

Brain gestures to the complicated-looking computer system behind him. “I think I’ve managed to stop the infestation. For now.” He walks over to a table in the center of the room, stopping to stand in front of an open book. The three of you follow and gather around the table. Though it's possible you're reading too much into it, it seems as though Ephemer is deliberately situating himself to stand between you and Brain.

Brain looks pointedly past Ephemer at you with one eyebrow raised. Ephemer shakes his head. “You can trust my friend. Just explain what’s going on.”

Brain shrugs. “All right, well, I’ll try to put it simply.” He picks up the open book on the table and closes it. “Before the Keyblade War, in the world we call Daybreak Town, we were able to visit worlds from the future via the Book of Prophecies.” He opens the book in his hand to show to you. “It was like a pop-up book of sorts.”

You glance at Ephemer, who’s looking down in thought. This is quite similar to a conversation you’d had with him, that first day when the two of you met.

Brain continues, “It projected the future of worlds–worlds that currently existed. Technically, you didn’t have to rely on the Book to get to those worlds, since they were all connected to Daybreak Town by land. You could’ve visited the present versions of those worlds if you’d wanted to.” As he speaks, he sets down the book he was holding in front of him and begins to arrange the stack of books beside him so they’re lined up on the table in several rows. When he’s finished, he looks up at everyone around the table. “That’s how things were in the past, anyway.”

Ven pulls back from the table in surprise. “Huh? Really? We could’ve just gone to all those places?”

Brain shrugs. “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been that easy.” He takes out more books from a pile in front of Ephemer and adds them to his arrangement. “The world is a big place, after all. And then, after the Keyblade War–” Abruptly, Brain shoves at the books on the table, separating them from each other, “–the worlds became scattered apart, no longer connected.”

Keyblade War… there’s a funny feeling around your chest when you hear that phrase. A memory flits at the edge of your mind but you can’t quite grasp it. You remember talking to Skuld about the prophesied end of the world but… and then… you went to visit… someone… It’s weirdly difficult to remember. Maybe you're getting this mixed up with your memories of cooking with Skuld at Beast's Castle? Sometimes you'd visit with the inhabitants to see how they were doing. 

Beside you, Ephemer seems oddly tense. His jaw is set and one hand is clenched around his scarf. You put a gentle hand on his shoulder and he softens slightly, letting go of his scarf to interlock his fingers with yours under the table. 

At the very least, you can’t seem to recall there being any sort of world-ending catastrophe, and surely you’d remember that much. So maybe this Keyblade War is something that happened long ago and you’re just hearing about it now…?

Brain picks up a book and stacks it on top of the volume in the middle of his arrangement as he continues speaking. “It was written in the Book that that would happen, so all the worlds were recreated as data in preparation to ensure that even without the Book, the worlds and their futures would still be accessible through a virtual setting. With me so far?” 

“Yeah,” agrees Ephemer. His expression is hard to read; it's as though he's deep in thought but he’s holding his shoulders rather stiffly. You glance over at Ven on your left, who’s nodding at Brain’s words. This is all starting to go over your head already. So the worlds you’ve been visiting aren’t projections from the future, now they’re… made of data? What’s the point?

“Basically,” says Brain, picking up the two books in the middle of his arrangement, “everyone in Daybreak Town, including us, is just continuing what we did before the Keyblade War: from the real Daybreak Town, we make our way to the virtual one, and from there, to the world of our choice. Still with me?”

Surely you’re not the only one who’s confused, you think as you turn to Ephemer, only to find him nodding at Brain’s words, his eyebrows pushed together in concentration. “Y-yeah, I’m still following,” he says, but your head is whirling with questions. A Daybreak Town made of data? Doing the same thing as before the Keyblade War? Does that mean the Keyblade War was recent? Why don’t you know about it?

You glance over at the many computer screens covering the walls of the room. Then, are the worlds shown in these monitors the words made of data? And the data is controlled from here? Your head is starting to spin just thinking about the implications.

“So,” Brain says, “here’s the issue.” He holds up the two books, one in each hand. “The Daybreak Town we’re in right now… is it the real one? Or the one made of data?” He shakes the books on his right and left in turn.

Ephemer studies the books in Brain’s hands, thinking. “Hmm... “ he says. “It would make the most sense for this to be the real world.”

Ven nods in agreement, but Brain simply lowers the books and shrugs. “Right? But there are things happening here that shouldn’t be.”

“Huh?” Ven glances back and forth between Ephemer and Brain. “Are you saying this is the data world?”

“It would be nice if it was that easy, but with those glitches showing up, things are a bit more complicated.” Brain sets the books he was holding back on the table and taps his finger on one of the covers. “Like Ephemer said, this should be the real world, and yet those glitches are obviously a phenomenon that belongs to the data one.”

“Then what’s going on?” Ephemer asks, glancing over at the monitors lining the walls. 

Brain continues, “Remember at the beginning I explained that this world is like a portal connecting to the future of worlds that already exist? That was the case until now. Somehow, it’s connected to a place that doesn’t exist in this world or time.”

Beside you, Ephemer suddenly looks over at Brain. “What? How?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Brain shrugs. “I don’t know if this is all part of the plan or what.” He gestures towards the computer he was working at when the three of you entered. “All I know is that we know practically nothing about this new location.”

A new world… hmm. At least this seems to make some sense to you; if Daybreak Town is somehow connected to an unusual new world, then you’ll need to figure out what’s going on in the new world to fix the problems.

Ephemer nods as well. “I see.”

Brain walks back over to the chair on the other end of the room and gazes idly at the monitor in front of him. “I also know that the glitches started appearing once we connected to this new world. It’s impossible to completely sever the connection, but I did manage to stabilize it. We’ll have to poke around to get some answers.”

Ven looks at you and Ephemer, then back at Brain. “You want us to go there?”

Brain turns back towards everyone. “It’s the best way to find out what’s going on.”

Ephemer is quiet for a moment before speaking up. “All right,” he says. “I’m in.” 

Without meaning to, your fingers clench around Ephemer’s more tightly in surprise. 

“What?!” exclaims Ven, echoing your thoughts. 

You rub your thumb against the back of Ephemer’s hand. “Ephemer…” you say softly, but Brain interrupts.

“I figured you’d say that,” he says. “But if something happens to you in there, Mister Leader, then we’ll all be in trouble. Don’t you think it’d be better to send someone from the Dandelions?” Brain turns to you and grins. “After all, it’s just like any other mission.”

Does he mean to send you? Well… you agree with what Brain’s saying about it being unwise to send someone as important as a Union leader.

“It’s way too dangerous!” Ephemer exclaims, letting go of your hand to thrust his arm out in front of you as though he intends to act as a barrier between you and Brain. 

Brain simply raises an eyebrow and addresses you. “Well, what do  _ you _ think?”

Ephemer shakes his head. “Look, you can’t–”

“I’ll do it.”

Both Ephemer and Ven turn to look at you incredulously and Ephemer lets out the breath of air he’d sucked in to argue against Brain’s request. He turns back to Brain and opens his mouth, presumably to protest, but the other boy waves his hand nonchalantly.

“It’ll be fine,” Brain says. “All you need to do is secure the route, and I should be able to stabilize it so we can come and go as we please from this end. That way, the others will be able to join you later.” He walks over to one of the keyboards along the side of the room and begins to type something in.

Ephemer turns to you and puts his hands on your shoulders, dipping his head close to yours. “You don’t have to go,” he says, lowering his voice for just the two of you to hear. “This isn’t your mess to get caught up in.”

You shake your head. “No, Brain is right. You’re needed here. It’s too dangerous for you to go there alone, and we need to solve this quickly. Sending me is the best option.”

Ephemer’s gaze darts between your eyes. “Peach…” he murmurs, his voice barely audible. Then, he smiles at you and pulls back, raising his voice. “If you’re going, then I am, too.”

You glance over at Brain, who cocks an eyebrow at the two of you, then shrugs and says, “All right then, the two of you. Go secure the route together.”

Ephemer’s smile grows wider and you return his grin. Even though you know he should probably be staying here, at least if you come along you can make sure nothing happens to him.

Ven smiles happily at the two of you and clasps his hands together behind his head. “Good luck!” he says. You and Ephemer nod.

“What a nice friendship,” Brain comments, glancing over at the two of you before going back to typing. “I must admit, I’m jealous.” He makes a few deliberate keystrokes and presses a button on the side of his keyboard. “Anyway, be careful,” he says. “If something happens, come back right away.”

In the corner of the room, a small glowing orb appears that slowly expands into a portal. It looks… a bit questionable. The air seems to fizzle and shimmer around it. 

“It’s still unstable,” Brain warns, “so you’d better hurry.”

You and Ephemer nod to each other and he offers you his hand, which you take before approaching the portal. Hand in hand, you step through together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon kind of glosses over what Player is thinking while Brain basically says "so the Keyblade War happened already", so I've decided on my own interpretation of how they come to understand the situation. I think it's nice that KHUx did try to bring our character back into the plot for a little while at least ~~until they were promptly abandoned in Sugar Rush so Ephemer could go back and do Plot Things~~.
> 
> Less than a month until the release of KHMoM! It's still a bit surreal that we're getting another KH game so soon. I've been successful so far in keeping away from spoilers, which is nice too. I hope this fic can scratch that KH itch in the meantime~


	12. Beyond the Door

It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the reduced light after you step through the portal. Ephemer’s hand is warm in yours and he squeezes your fingers gently to reassure you.

“This is kinda different from the usual passages, huh?” he says, glancing around.

You appear to be in some kind of tunnel made up of several connected cylinders. The path underfoot is uneven and awkward to walk over. “Do you think this is already part of the new world?” you ask, your voice echoing ominously off the walls.

“Maybe…” Ephemer muses. You hear a shuffling sound in the distance, and red and blue gearbit Heartless come whirring down the tunnel towards you. “Not here, too!” Ephemer says, letting go of your hand to summon his keyblade. 

You nod to him, summoning your own keyblade as well. “Let’s go.”

Fighting alongside Ephemer is almost effortless; somehow even the smallest gestures and body language passed between the two of you are enough to know where to go and how to act. Ephemer takes on the brunt of the Heartless’s attention while you work your way around to get in devastating blows from behind. Together you cut down the Heartless that bar your way forward, venturing into deeper darkness as you continue down the tunnel. Some parts of the tunnel are so dark that it’s difficult to see the Heartless at all, save for their eerily glowing yellow eyes.

After a long stretch of near pitch-black darkness, the path ahead of you grows steadily brighter and curves around to the right. “Looks like there could be an exit down there,” you remark.

Ephemer nods, drawing the back of his hand against his forehead. “I hope so.”

Just before you make it around the corner, a dark shape drops down from the ceiling and lands in front of the two of you. 

“ **ņ̷̛͔̩̲̤̮̇̎̎̈́̚͟O̻̩̪̤̠̻̍̅̾͆̚͠͡ͅT̸̜̩͈̺̺̎͒̑͛͂̋.̗̠͕̪̣̾̾̎́̕͟͞.̡͇͈̼̟̭̿̐̿̇̈̚.̘͍͚̩̭̟͕̇̏̽̾̍͂̒̆̒ͅy̶̢̼̩̟̹̬̖̓̔̀̓̇͐͠͞͠ͅŌ̢͓͔͚͎̘̃̇͛̎͜ū̸͎͖̩͍̟̟̦̱̏̑̈́͐̕̕.̛̬̘̟̤̙̽̈͊͒͢ͅ.̧̲̤̱̼̖̠͍̈́̃̈̆́̄̋͜͡.̶̛̲̱̪̪̦͉̊̌̐̓́̋̎** ”

“Another one?!” You stumble a few steps backwards in surprise. It’s the same creature as the ones you came across outside the control room.

Ephemer throws out an arm protectively between you and the creature, raising his keyblade in preparation to attack. “Here it comes!” 

The creature seems to make to leap over Ephemer towards you, but he catches its legs with his keyblade and sends it tumbling back towards the tunnel floor. It scrambles to its feet and looks around wildly, its blank glowing eyes landing on you once more. 

“Hey! Over here!” Ephemer yells, trying to get its attention, but it doesn’t move its gaze from you. It lets out an odd sort of hissing sound and races towards you, claws outstretched. “Watch yourself!” Ephemer warns, running after it.

You catch its attack head-on with your keyblade, swinging your weapon towards its chest. Unexpectedly, it grabs onto the shaft and tries to pry the keyblade away from you. You grip the handle with both hands, tugging back. It’s  _ strong _ . Realizing you might be fighting a losing battle trying to win the keyblade back, you glance over the creature’s shoulder and make eye contact with Ephemer before shoving the creature backwards and letting go of the handle, right into the swing of Ephemer’s keyblade. It lets out an anguished cry and releases your weapon, which clatters to the ground and vanishes in a flash of light as you summon it back to your hand. 

With great speed, the creature scurries out of reach of your keyblades and further down the tunnel. You and Ephemer sprint after it, only to see it round the corner and disappear through what seems to be the exit.

“After it, quick!” Ephemer says, and you nod, feet pounding against the uneven tunnel floor, the sound making a great clatter as it echoes off the walls.

The contrast from the dim interior of the tunnel to the dazzling brightness on the other side of the exit forces you to shield your eyes and take a moment to adjust.

“Is this…?” Beside you, Ephemer lowers his hand from in front of his eyes and looks around. It’s a massive room, with a floor so shiny you can see your reflection. Along the walls are dozens and dozens of doorways that seem to lead into tunnels like the one you’d just stepped out of; however, red velvet rope barriers block off most of them from entry. The two of you wander farther in, towards the center of the room. There’s no sign of the creature you’d followed here, nor anyone else for that matter. “...the new world?” Ephemer finishes.

You dismiss your keyblade as you examine your surroundings. “There sure are a lot of doorways. I wonder if they all go somewhere different.” Out of the corner of your eye, you catch something flickering and turn to see more of those square creatures Brain called “glitches” floating into one of the exits. “Ah, look!” you say, patting Ephemer on the shoulder and pointing. You start to take a step to go after the creatures, but he puts a hand on your shoulder to stop you.

“Wait–over there.” He gestures to an exit near the one the two of you came out of, through which the twitchy darkling from earlier is escaping. 

You turn back towards Ephemer, suddenly unsure. Ephemer rocks his keyblade up and down in his hand, pursing his lips. His eyes dart between you and the two exits. You smile at him despite the sinking feeling in your chest. “We can’t let either of them get away, huh?”

Ephemer’s shoulders slump. “Yeah. We need to know where those glitches are coming from, and what that dark creature is after.” He takes a few steps closer and reaches out to gently brush his fingers against the back of your hand, not quite holding it but seeming to seek to reassure you with the gesture. “You’ll be alright on your own for a bit?” It’s not a question, but the hesitation in his voice makes it into one.

You tap him playfully on the shoulder. “You know me. Just make sure you take care of yourself.”

He nods, his expression brightening into a small smile. “I will. I’ll go after the dark creature from before. I don’t like the way it seemed fixated on you in the tunnel earlier, so I think it’s safer if I go.”

“Got it. I’ll look into those glitches, then.” You take a small step back and summon your keyblade.

“Meet back here if you run into trouble, okay?” he says. “And call my name if you need me.”

These tunnels are going to force the two of you a lot farther apart than the paths in the underground waterway, but you appreciate the sentiment nonetheless. “I will. I’ll see you soon.”

With one final nod to one another, you depart for your separate destinations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I got to this part of the game and I was like nooooo Ephemer don't leave :( Can't believe they reunited us with our boy only to go off and separate us again. Very rude of them! ~~it's okay we will be fixing this later~~.  
> I've had quite a roller coaster of a week, with both very good news and bad news, but I'm slowly getting through it. Lucky I have so many chapters already written for this fic, haha. I was thinking I might do another 10-12k for it during NaNo next month, along with some other projects I want to finish, and admittedly that will fill up my schedule quite a lot but I think I can manage it? I can sure try, anyway. Hope you have a lovely day, and thank you for reading!


	13. Risky Romp

Through the exit is a tunnel almost identical to the one you and Ephemer wandered in through, but this time there’s a train of some sort sitting at the entrance. You call out quietly for your Chirithy as you climb aboard and the train begins to move down the path.

“Keep your eyes peeled for those red block creatures,” you explain to your companion as you rocket through the tunnel. “Ephemer and I are splitting up to investigate more of this new world.”

Chirithy looks around, but with only the headlights on the train to see by, it’s difficult to make out much more than a blur of tunnel walls. “Where do you think it goes?” they ask.

“I think there was a sign above the tunnel that said something like ‘To Fix-it Felix Jr.’?” The train car has a picture of someone on it, too.” A dull screeching noise echoes off the walls. “Oh, we’re slowing down.”

In the distance, you can hear the dinging bells of a railroad crossing sign and the train pulls out of the tunnel up to a tiny station. Overhead are more signs that say “Fix-it Felix Jr.”. You and Chirithy hop out and look around. Letters carved into the wall above the path you came from say “To Game Central Station”. Hmm. It seems like Game Central Station is the room with all the exits you and Ephemer were in previously.

“I don’t see those creatures anymore…” you say, straining your eyes for any sign of the flickering red blocks. There are plenty of other blocks in this place, however – everything from the trees to the garbage can seems to be shaped like a cube. 

Chirithy walks in front of you down the steps off the station. “Well, we can’t let them get away. We’ll keep looking!”

Just then, a scream echoes from somewhere to your left. You hurry past the train tracks and look around for the source. Across from a giant pile of junk and building debris is a multi-storey apartment building under attack by dozens of Heartless. “There are Heartless here too!?” Chirithy says with a sigh.

You glance back at your companion. “I need to help these people first. Keep an eye on the entrance if you can, okay?” Chirithy nods at you and you hurry on, across a bridge and past several cube-shaped trees lined up in rows. 

There’s quite the commotion at the building up ahead – aside from the Heartless attack, that is. In fact, it seems as though someone is throwing something at the Heartless to drive them off. Well, that’s more help than you usually get. You take a swing at a soldier Heartless on the ground level and take it out with a few well-placed strikes, then leap up onto one of the wide window sills to reach a Yellow Opera. Taking a cue from Ven, you throw your keyblade at the enemy so you don’t have to stray far away from the building. 

Upon summoning your keyblade back to your hand, something heavy just barely misses your shoulder and falls to the ground below. Glancing up, you realize that whoever is standing on top of the building is still hurling what appears to be bricks in your general direction. “What the…” you mutter to yourself as another brick sails past alarmingly close to your head. You need to get up there and explain what’s happening before you take a brick to the face.

Scaling the building isn’t too difficult due to the way the window sills protrude outwards, but the combined pressure of trying to take out Heartless while dodging flying bricks makes progress slow. At last, you scramble over the last storey to the rooftop, where an extremely large man is furiously pounding at the roof to send bricks showering over the side of the building.

“Excuse me!” you call, cautiously approaching him. 

The man stops dislodging bricks and turns to look at you. “Who are you supposed to be? Don’t tell me you’ve gone Turbo!”

_ Turbo? _ Confused, you glance down at your keyblade, then back to the man. “What–”

“Not in my game, you won’t!” The man slams his fists down onto the rooftop, sending a shockwave of debris towards you that knocks you off balance. 

“Wait, I–” you begin, steadying yourself on a nearby wall, but it’s no use. The man picks up more bricks to hurl at you, forcing you to dodge out of reach. “I’m trying to help you!”

He’s definitely not listening, you realize as you smack one of his bricks away with your keyblade. You don’t want to hurt him – he’s probably just defending his home – but you’re not going to be able to safely look for those glitches if he’s throwing bricks at you all the time.

You throw up a reflect barrier to block some of his attacks, but the bricks have so much force behind them it’s hard to keep it up. Finally your barrier shatters around you, and you decide that this situation calls for more drastic measures. Clasping your keyblade with both hands in front of you, you aim at the man’s feet and shout “Fira!”

A huge fireball shoots out of your keyblade, the force causing you to take a step backwards. The man stops throwing bricks and runs in the opposite direction, away from the flaming fire missile. He turns back for a second to look at you, only to trip over one of the bricks scattered across the rooftop and stumble, a look of surprise crossing his face as he loses his balance. You start to run towards him but you’re too late – his momentum takes him over the edge of the roof and he falls down to the ground below. Rushing to the edge, you peer down and see with relief that he seems to be alright – he’s landed in a pile of mud, and as you watch he reaches up and wipes some of it from his face. 

“I’m so sorry!” you yell down to him. This is definitely not how you pictured meeting someone new here.

From behind you, a new voice calls out “Ralph? Ralph!”

You turn to see a much smaller man peering out one of the windows set back in a room on the rooftop. In fact, his face looks rather like the images you saw on the side of the train on your way here – perhaps this is Fix-it Felix? He hops outside onto the rooftop with you and you dismiss your keyblade to walk over, but he pushes past you to stare over the edge down at where the other man – Ralph? – fell down. 

“Ralph!” He looks at you. “Wait, you didn’t…?” Another glance down at the man in the mud. “Oh, no!”

With abrupt movement, the smaller man jerks back from the edge of the rooftop and ushers you back towards the center of the building. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” he chastises, hands on his hips. “You can’t just come into our game and do whatever you like!” He paces back and forth for a moment before looking at you again. “I mean sure, Ralph  _ is _ the Bad Guy, but we need him. He wrecks the building, and I fix it. I’m supposed to defeat him. Me–Felix!” He takes out a golden hammer from his tool belt and gives a little leap in the air. Surely this must indeed be Fix-it Felix, like the name over the train tunnel said.

“I… I’m sorry?” His wording is throwing you off. Did he or did he not want this Ralph to be defeated? “I didn’t mean to make him fall off the roof, honest.”

Felix taps his foot on the floor. “The players didn’t notice anything, but be careful! If they think our game is broken, we’ll get unplugged.” He replaces the hammer on his tool belt. “Well, I’ve got to get ready for the party, friend. So long!” 

You watch as he disappears around the corner somewhere. ‘The players didn’t notice’? ‘Game’? What is he talking about? You shake your head to clear it. In any case, you need to find those glitches and meet up with Ephemer again. You pick your way down the building again, thinking you’ll try to find Ralph and see if he knows anything about the glitches invading his world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my friends warned me KHUx has decided to release a medal relating to KHMoM, which I guess means I'm not touching KHUx/Dark Road until I've played through KHMoM. That's okay, we're less than two weeks away from release date anyway :D Buuut it does mean I haven't seen this new Dark Road update. I've also got a very very busy November ahead of me, but fingers crossed I'll still be able to do a chapter each week :) I need to write a transitional chapter or two between some of the existing ones I've already written, but I still have a nice buffer so hopefully we're all right until the end of the year~ Happy November!


	14. Missing You

You get off the train and wander into the cavernous central room where you’d split off from Ephemer, looking around to see if your friend has returned too. You haven’t had any luck finding Ralph to speak to, and fighting the Heartless has been exhausting. There’s been no sign of those glitches for a while, either. It might be time to call it a day and come back later.

“Ephemer?” you call out into the empty room, your voice echoing off its rounded ceiling. You’re not entirely sure which entrance he went through any more; was it the one with “Hero’s Duty” over it? Or the one next to it that says “Sugar Rush”?

Luckily, you’re saved from making a choice when you hear the sound of a train coming to a stop somewhere beyond the Hero’s Duty entrance. You pick up the pace, hoping to see your friend.

“Peach!” Ephemer exclaims when he sees you, surprise and relief creasing his forehead. The train he steps out of is quite a bit different from the one you’d taken to Fix-it Felix; this one is sleek metallic black with shiny gold-tinted windows. “How’d it go? Did you find anything?”

You shake your head. “Not yet. I got talking to a few of the people living here but I haven’t seen those glitches for a while and fighting the Heartless has been exhausting. Did you catch up with the darkling?”

He sighs. “No luck for me either. I was thinking I’d find you and regroup. How are you feeling? It’s been a long day.”

“I’m getting pretty tired. I think it’d be better to come back later when we’re refreshed to tackle this again.”

Ephemer offers you a warm smile. “Okay. Let’s do that, then. I can explain to Brain what we found.” You nod, and he continues, “Thanks for your help today. It’s been… I mean, I really…” He glances at you but then looks away again, one hand tugging at his scarf. “I’m glad we met up today. I’m sorry you got caught up in all this too, but… I missed you.”

He’s not looking your way so he startles a little when you step forward to wrap your arms around him, then seems to settle into the embrace and hugs you back. “I missed you too, sunshine,” you say as you step back. Maybe now that you have a reason to come to the tower, you might see him more often. Assuming, of course, that the other Union leaders are okay with you being there… given the situation, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you’re only allowed in due to the state of emergency. But that’s something to discuss once you’re back. “Do you want to do the honours?” you ask, gesturing back towards the exit. 

Ephemer nods and summons his keyblade to create a portal back to Daybreak Town, which you both step through. On the other side, back in the tower,  Ven and the pink-haired Leader – Lauriam – are sitting at the table pouring over some kind of book. Ephemer nods to you and walks over to Brain, still sitting at the desk with all the monitors, to explain your findings.

Someone calls your name and you glance in the other direction to see Skuld, a small skip in her step as she rushes over to you. “I’m so glad to see you!” she says.

A smile breaks out over your face and you open your arms to pull her into a hug. “ _ Skuld!” _ you exclaim in surprise. “Where did you come from?”

“Lauriam and I heard something was happening in the control room and we came over, but by that time you and Ephemer had already left.” She releases her hold on you and takes a small step backwards, holding both your hands in front of her. “You’ve met Lauriam, right? He’s over there, next to Ven.”

You nod and look over at him. “Yeah, Ephemer introduced me.” You give her hands a squeeze, studying your friend's face. “It’s so good to see you. What have you been up to?”

A shadow falls over her cheery expression, but only for a moment and then she’s smiling again. “Oh, well. Leader stuff. I’m sure you’ll get caught up soon. But I want to know – what’s happening in that new world? Brain says there’s some kind of new enemy that came from there that had escaped out here. Did you find it?”

You regale Skuld with the tale of your exploration with Ephemer, how you’d chased after the strange new enemy and fought your way up a building with a man sending bricks tumbling down at you. Skuld listens intently, nodding and gasping at all the right times. 

“We’ll go back again after resting up, I expect,” you say, glancing over at Brain, who seems more-or-less in charge of containing this whole issue.

Brain looks up from his conversation with Ephemer and waves a hand idly from his computer chair. “Yes, yes, do what you need to and come back to tackle it tomorrow. I’ll just be here, making sure it doesn’t get any worse,” he drawls, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Part of you wants to stick around and talk with Ephemer again after he’s done speaking with Brain, but then your stomach growls and you know you should eat something before it grows late. “I should get something to eat,” you say, looking back at Skuld. “I can come back in the morning to hunt down those creatures again.”

Skuld peers out the window and frowns. “You know, you’re right; it’s getting late. I should eat something too – do you mind if I come with you?” 

“Not at all!”

She grins, then turns to Ven, still sitting beside Lauriam but apparently having lost interest in whatever he was reading by this time. He’s testing how far he can push his seat backwards on its two legs while still catching himself on the table edge to prevent himself from tipping over. “Ven,” Skuld says, and the legs of his chair hit the floor with an audible  _ thunk _ , “if Ephemer asks about us when he’s done talking with Brain, can you let him know we’re just going to go out to get some food? I’ll be back later tonight.”

“Can I come get food too?” Ven asks, and Skuld rolls her eyes. 

“There are still leftovers from yesterday in the kitchen. You should help Lauriam.”

With a sigh and a pouty face, Ven turns back to Lauriam, propping his cheeks up with the heels of his hands as he leans against the table. Skuld turns to you. “Shall we?” she asks, and you nod, eager to spend some more time with your friend.

The two of you just manage to reach the marketplace before it closes and pick up a couple of ingredients, swapping munny for a head of cabbage and some pork, among other things. As you shop you talk idly about the new Union activities and introduce Skuld to Lucky, who approaches her cautiously in the form of a spiky hedgehog before deciding she isn't a threat and turning back into a fluffy dog, tail wagging eagerly. 

“We can go back to my place to cook, if you want,” you explain to Skuld after you’ve bought all the items you need. “I’ve managed to stock up on some more cooking utensils and stuff recently.”

“Sounds great!” Skuld says, swinging her bag of purchases as she walks. It doesn’t take long to reach your place and the two of you unpack the ingredients on your countertop.

“Have you ever made pot stickers before?” you ask as you take out the little dough wrappers and set them next to your cutting board. “I found a recipe for gyoza and I thought I’d try it.”

Skuld shakes her head. “No, but just let me know what I can do. You always were the head of the kitchen.” She laughs a little, remembering.

“I missed cooking with you,” you say, handing her a knife and cutting board. “You can start by chopping up the cabbage. I’m going to start making the filling.”

Skuld nods and does as you ask, peeling away some of the leaves and slicing them into small strips. You grab a fork and some measuring spoons to begin mixing together the rest of the filling. “So, do you usually eat together with the other Union leaders, or…?” you ask tentatively, thinking how Ven had requested to come along for food.

“Oh, not always,” Skuld says, staring down at her cutting board. “Ven’s a disaster in the kitchen though so the rest of us have been taking turns cooking for him. Mostly me and Lauriam.” She sighs. “I mean, I’d like him to be able to cook for himself, but he’s so young and it would take so long to teach him that sometimes I think it’s just easier to do it for him.”

You laugh a little at this. “He does seem to have lots of energy. Does Brain cook, too?”

“Brain?” Skuld pauses for a moment, the knife hovering over the cabbage head. “You know, I rarely see him eat anything at all. I think he only makes himself really simple things. Lauriam, on the other hand, is a superb cook. He says he used to cook for his sister all the time and he definitely knows his way around the kitchen.”

“And Ephemer?”

Skuld returns to chopping her cabbage. “Not as much of a disaster in the kitchen as I expected. He doesn’t make anything complicated, and he tends to just make the same food day in and day out, but he does eat well enough. I’ve been bugging him to branch out; I think he's eaten the same kind of sandwich every day this week.”

A little twinge of sadness plucks at your heart unexpectedly. What, are you sad that Ephemer eats food without you? That would be stupid. But you do feel a little left out that Skuld and Ephemer get to eat food together… without you. That’s silly to feel, right? It’s just because they’re both Union leaders and end up spending time together in the same place. You shake your head a little as though to dislodge the feeling.

“Here, I’ll take the cabbage you’ve cut up,” you say, bringing your mixing bowl over to Skuld’s cutting board. She sweeps the vegetable into your bowl and you use your fork to combine it with the pork mixture. “Yeah, I think that’s enough cabbage. I need some garlic, too, if you could cut a few cloves up next.”

Skuld nods and reaches for the bulb of garlic across the counter. You search through your cupboards for a serving plate you’ll be able to put the completed dumplings onto and get one of your largest frying pans out of the drawer next to the oven. If you remember the recipe correctly, you’re supposed to fry one side of the dumplings, then add some water and steam them until the water is gone and the meat inside is cooked.

“Can I just add the garlic to your bowl?” Skuld asks, lifting her cutting board so you can see how much she cut up. 

“Yeah, go ahead. Then we can start wrapping it up with the little dough sheets.” You mix in the extra garlic and then roll up your sleeves to begin making the gyoza. “So just take a bit of this mixture, and then add it to the middle of the circle and fold it over like this. Then you dunk your finger in the cup of water and squish it closed… well, this one looks ugly, but I’m sure they’ll get prettier as we go,” you joke.

Skuld grins and the two of you set to work folding the dough over the pork mixture to make little half-moon dumplings. There’s definitely a sort of skill to it that you don’t quite have, and the dumplings don’t always turn out looking lovely, but so long as the seams are pinched closed it’s not too important.

“I started cooking more things on my own, too, after… er, after we became Union leaders. I tried following the recipes we’d done together, like that time we made spaghetti and meatballs. I think all the tedious work is more fun with a friend, though.”

A strange sort of unhappiness burrows its way somewhere by your chest and you’re not quite sure why. There’s a little part of you that whispers  _ she had time to make food without you but didn’t want to come visit? Didn’t ask to make the food together? _

It’s not even like you would have had to hang out for a long time afterwards – you wouldn’t have gotten in the way of her leader work; you could have simply helped her make the food and then both gone off to do your own tasks. But she didn’t ask.

You try to swallow this strange feeling and struggle to bring a pleasant expression to your face. “Yeah, it feels like less of a chore when someone helps you out,” you say, depositing another dumpling onto the plate. Then, grateful for an excuse to hide your face for a moment, you turn back to the stove and grab your frying pan. “I’m going to start cooking this first batch.”

Skuld hums a song you don’t know the tune to as she folds the dumplings, squishing the seams together into little half-moons. You stare at the backsplash on your stovetop as you wait for the oil to heat up, angry with yourself for being upset like this when mostly you just want to hang out with your friend again. It’s not her fault she’s busy. And you ought to find other people to hang out with in this way, the way you spent time with Ephemer and with Skuld before they became Union leaders. Then you won’t be putting so much pressure on them to see you all the time and you won’t feel as upset if you can’t see them for a few weeks. Right?

The oil starts to crackle very slightly and you gently lift the first few dumplings up with a spatula and deposit them into the pan with a satisfying sizzle. You should… change the topic, maybe. You turn back to Skuld. “Do you have a favourite food?” you ask.

She turns to face you, though her eyes are focused on the dumpling in her hand as she folds it over and pinches the edges closed. “Well…” she muses, pushing her lips out in thought. “I do like sweet things. Cake and ice cream, for example. But I wouldn’t be able to have that all the time or I’m sure I’d get tired of it.”

You nod, prodding at one of the dumplings to see if the bottom looks browned enough, then fill a small glass with water in preparation to pour over the dumplings to steam them. “Maybe we should do baking some time, then,” you say, “instead of just cooking.”

“I’d like that too!” Skuld says, putting her completed dumpling on the plate and grabbing another wrapper. “Though, I wouldn’t be able to meet up with you as often as we used to. I may not have the same kind of missions anymore, but being a Union leader is hard work.”

You nod like a good, understanding friend instead of one with a pool of resentment at being left behind stagnating in their stomach. "Yeah, that's alright. Missions keep me busy too. There are a lot more things to get done in a day now, what with the Union Cross missions and Coliseum battles and everything."

Skuld glances over at you curiously. "How are the new missions? Union Cross and all that?" 

You shrug, pouring some water over the dumplings in the pan and turning the heat down before topping it with the lid. "They're all right. People are friendlier when we're doing Union Cross missions together. I don't really like the one-on-one battles; seems a bit silly to pretend-fight each other when there are actual enemies to fight, though I guess it gives you a chance to see how everyone else fights and practise without worrying about getting hurt." You don't mention that you haven't participated in the one-on-one coliseum battles since the first time you entered and had what you think might have been a panic attack. No point worrying her. You trace your finger along the handle of the frying pan. "Lucky's been a big help, too, when I'm out on missions."

"I'm glad to hear it," Skuld replies, scraping at the bottom of the bowl to get the last of the meat filling. "There, last one. I'm really looking forward to eating these." 

You nod in agreement. "I hope they turn out." You peek under the lid and see that the water has evaporated from the pan and the gyoza is ready to be served. You slide your spatula under as many of the little dumplings as possible and flip them onto the plate. 

"Those smell  _ amazing _ ," Skuld gushes, looking longingly at the gyoza. You smile and set the plate down beside the stove as you put more dumplings in the pan to cook. 

“Well, I suppose we could have a little taste test while we wait for this next batch,” you say, opening your cupboard doors to grab some plates and chopsticks. Skuld goes to your sink to wash up as you make two small place settings on the other side of your island. You pour a little soy sauce in a bowl to serve as dipping sauce – as you understand it, there’s a more specific kind of sauce usually served with gyoza, but this will do in the meantime. 

“Do you think I could take a few of these back to the other Union leaders?” Skuld asks as she sits down across from you at the island. “Not many, mind you – just like one for everyone so they can try them.”

A knife twists in your stomach. “Yeah sure,” is what you say, keeping your tone light. “You helped me make them.”

It’s an awful feeling, getting upset at one of your best friends like this. What’s wrong with you? Obviously it’s normal and fine to have other friends. And she  _ did _ work hard helping you make these. So of course she should be free to share them with the others.

Skuld grabs one of the gyoza off the plate with her chopsticks and dunks it experimentally in the soy sauce before nibbling at one of the corners. “Ah, it’s still hot!” she exclaims, lowering the dumpling and exhaling a breath of warm air. “Gotta give it a minute.”

You force a small chuckle and turn back to your pan, diligently checking the bottom to see how browned they are before adding some water again and replacing the lid over them. You’re no fun to be around like this. Why can’t you just enjoy yourself?

“Hey Skuld,” you say slowly, still torn on whether it’s right to reveal these insecurities to your friend or not. “Do you – this is your first time having gyoza, right?” At the last moment you falter and switch tracks.

“I feel like I might have had them at a shop somewhere, but it’s been so long I don’t remember. I’ve certainly never tried making them before. It was easier than I expected.” She brushes her long hair behind her ear and picks up the still-steaming gyoza to give it another nibble.

You nod, tapping your finger against the frying pan handle. “A lot of things are easier to make than you’d think.” Oh, you can’t stand feeling like this, being upset with Skuld. Surely she’s noticed by now. “So um, about the whole Leader thing,” you begin carefully, trying to keep your tone light and non accusatory. “I have to admit I’ve been feeling really out of the loop lately. I know you all have things you can’t tell me, and that Leader work will keep you busy. But well, it’s been a few months since I’ve seen either you or Ephemer and I’ve wondered… well… wondered if you’re not as interested in hanging out anymore.” The words sound whiny and immature even as they come out of your mouth and you struggle to make it sound casual. “Which is alright too! You know, if you just want to see each other once a month or something. I’d just like to know.”

Skuld pauses in grabbing another gyoza and sets her chopsticks down, looking across the counter with wide eyes and a creased forehead. “Oh, no, that’s not it at all!” she says, getting off her seat and coming over to stand next to you, arms open for a hug. “I’m really sorry if it came across that way.” You let her pull you into her arms and stay like that for a moment, carefully holding your spatula away from her body so as not to get food in her hair. She pulls back but keeps her hands on your arms, peering into your face, her brown eyes searching yours. “I love spending time with you. I know Ephemer does, too. I think we’ve both been feeling kind of overwhelmed at all these new Leader responsibilities and didn’t want to bring that stress to you. But you’re right; we need to be more open about it and how busy we are.”

Something about her words makes you feel unexpectedly like you’re going to cry so you turn away under the pretense of checking on the gyoza and adding more water to steam them and manage to get the feeling somewhat under control before turning back. Skuld is watching you carefully, and her studious gaze is making you feel nervous. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like a big deal,” you say, trying to backpedal a little, but Skuld shakes her head.

“No, it’s good you told me. I’m sorry I didn’t realize how you might feel about it. It won’t be as easy to line up our schedules anymore, but maybe we can pick at least a day each week to get together for a little while? Even if it’s just to check in and say hello or good night.”

You let out a deep breath, grateful for Skuld’s reassurance and also feeling a bit silly for all the fuss. Of course she likes to hang out with you. Why else would she have come here? You smile at your friend. “Thanks. I think that sounds lovely.”

Skuld returns the smile and goes back to her seat at the island, patting the spot beside her. “Why don’t you finish that batch and come eat? We can cook up the rest afterwards.”

“Sounds good,” you say, checking to see if the water has evaporated out of the pan and turning off the burner upon seeing that the gyoza is cooked. You grab the plate back from the counter and top it off with the latest batch before sitting down beside Skuld and taking a bite of your latest creation. “Ohh, these turned out well,” you say, swallowing.

“You’ll be a bit hit with the other leaders,” Skuld assures you. “They might even want you to stick around more often if we keep making food this good!”

You smile at the thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, the moment canon never gave us: a reunion between Skuld and Player. I missed Skuld! It'll be nice having her back. Anyway, this is my cue to stretch out the timeline so I can implement more Happy Friendship Times, because that's what we all really need ^^ Last week in particular was pretty stressful, so it's nice to come back to this.   
> Anyway, KHMoM this week!! I'm happy to report that I know virtually nothing at all about it so I can have my hard-earned spoiler-free playthrough in a few days. I hope everyone else gets to enjoy it as well!


	15. Critical Crossroad

After a lengthy discussion with Brain, he’s agreed to allow you to go along with Ephemer to investigate the new world. Ephemer sent word with your Chirithy this morning that your mission would be with him, and the two of you headed back to the huge room with all the train stations. There’s no sign of those glitchy creatures today, so you’re investigating the world beyond the Hero’s Duty train together.

“When you were here last time, did you see any clues where the darkling could have gone?” you ask, looking around. 

Ephemer shakes his head. “No. There are some powerful Heartless here though; be careful.”

“Maybe we can find someone to ask where it might have gone,” you suggest, idly rubbing your thumb over the handle of your keyblade as the two of you walk. “This world seems weirdly empty right now. Look at all these buildings. Why is everything so dark? Was it like this when you were here before?”

He shrugs. “Yeah, I’m not sure where everyone is. Or maybe no one lives here. I guess that would be good if they have Heartless invading – oh, watch yourself!”

A red gearbit Heartless whirrs out from behind a metal wall and Ephemer leaps forward to drive it away from you. You perform a quick gravity spell, slowing the Heartless in its tracks and giving Ephemer a clear opportunity to vanquish it. 

As you pick your way through the barren landscape, there’s no sign of the darkling but plenty of Heartless to keep you both busy. Your little Spirit companion makes an appearance sometimes to help with the fight, and Ephemer is glad to see that at least some good has come out of following the rules the foretellers left behind. Sometimes it can feel like they’re all just blindly stumbling their way forward, hoping the rulebook has the right answers.

Fighting alongside you seems to come almost naturally the more Heartless you take out together. Often you take up positions on either side of a Heartless, one person keeping the Heartless busy so the other can get in devastating attacks from behind. You’ve gotten better at wielding a keyblade since Ephemer last saw you, he thinks, particularly with your magic. That was never his strong suit. 

He deflects a Heat Saber’s attack and it spins around towards you, just as planned. Your keyblade is already raised, ready to attack, and in that small split-second something is –  _ wrong _ . Your face goes ashen grey and you seem frozen in place.

Ephemer calls your name, panic lancing through his voice. “Look out!”

No, no, it’s his fault if you get hurt. He’s not sure what’s happening but you’re not prepared for the Heartless’s attack, it’s going to bring its bladed hand down on your shoulder and he can’t get there in time, was he wrong in thinking you were ready for that attack?

From behind you your Spirit companion, now a tiny blue wolf with a ferocious gaze, darts forward and nips the Heat Saber’s leg, causing it to stagger and look down. That buys Ephemer enough time to run around it and get in front of you, bringing his keyblade up once more to slash at the Heartless. It swings its bladed arms and one of them catches him in the side, ripping a jagged tear in his shirt fabric. Ignoring the stinging pain, Ephemer brings his keyblade up once more and lunges forward with his weapon outstretched and cloaked in light, driving it back. All that matters is keeping the Heartless away from you.

Another few swings of his keyblade and the Heartless vanishes at last. Your little wolf races back towards you and Ephemer turns as well, dismissing his keyblade and running over to where you’re kneeling on the ground, one hand on your chest and the other arm up by your face as though to protect yourself from an attack.

“Are you okay?” he asks, quickly scanning your body for any signs of injury. Your keyblade is nowhere to be seen. Your Spirit circles around you and lets out a little bark before turning into a fluffy pink dog and cautiously approaching you, ears back but tail wagging eagerly.

Your breathing is way too fast to be normal and you shake your head at him, eyes wide. “I don’t… Ephemer I… I don’t know what’s happening it was just… and I thought… and…!” You take huge gasps of air as you try to speak.

What should he do?? He drops to his knees beside you and reaches towards you hesitantly, not sure if you want to be touched right now. “What can I do?” he asks. “Should I get your Chirithy? Can you breathe okay? Does anything hurt?”

“It’s my chest, I… it feels tight and… I’m sorry, I don’t know...!” The stricken look on your face is wrenching at Ephemer’s heart. He puts his hand over yours, hoping maybe the touch will provide some comfort and you squeeze his fingers, your breath coming in odd little irregular gasps but not as fast as before. He shuffles closer to put his other arm around you and you collapse forward onto him, trembling. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you say into his shirt.

“It’s all right,” Ephemer says in the most soothing voice he can manage. “It’s okay. Take all the time you need. I’m here.”

The two of you sit on the ground like that for several minutes before your breathing evens out, and even after that you cling to Ephemer for a few more moments before drawing back. “Thank you,” you say, your eyes a little pink but regular colour coming back into your cheeks. You seem to be avoiding his gaze. “Oh– you’re hurt.” You tug gently at the ripped part of his shirt, underneath which a shallow cut is visible.

Ephemer looks down at the injury with some surprise. “Don’t worry about it,” he says, brushing your hand away. He summons his keyblade to his side for a moment. “ _ Curaga. _ ” Such a powerful healing spell is a bit overkill for his injury, but he wants to be sure you’re included in the area of effect, just in case. “Why don’t we call it a day? We’ll get some rest and come back later.”

“But we didn’t even–”

“I’ve got to get changed, too. Don’t worry about it.” He flashes you a grin and you give a small smile back, nodding. He clambers to his feet and offers you a hand up, then summons his keyblade and opens a portal back to Daybreak Town. 

You arrive a little worse for wear in the control room, where Brain is still typing away on his computer. “Back so soon?” he calls with his back to you, then spins around to see Ephemer shaking his head at him from behind you, warning him not to comment. 

“We ran into a bit of trouble,” Ephemer says, trying to keep his tone light. “We’re going to get cleaned up and go back tomorrow.”

Brain’s eyebrows disappear up beneath his untidy hair, but he shrugs and swivels around back to his monitor. “Whatever you say, boss man.”

Ephemer gives you a reassuring smile. “Come on, my room’s just up this way.” He leads you out of the room up to the gear-shaped elevator that leads up to the rooms the new Union leaders have taken residence in.

You’re quiet as you wind your way through the halls and arrive outside of Ephemer’s room. He pauses for a moment outside the door – you’ve never been to his room in the tower before. This isn’t the time to dwell on that, though. He opens the door and leads you through.

“So, this is where I stay now,” he says, gesturing around. “Do you want to… I mean, there’s a bathroom just over here if you want to get washed up. I don’t have any spare towels but you can use mine for now – they’re clean – and I’ll go get some more. I’ll leave some stuff outside the door too if you want to get changed.”

“Thanks, Ephemer,” you say, your cheeks a bit pink. It’s good to see the colour back; it had spooked him to see your face so pale earlier. You head into his bathroom and close the door behind yourself.

Ephemer taps his fingers against his leg for a moment before turning on his heel and dashing over to Skuld’s room and knocking on her door. He hopes she’s in; he doesn’t really have a backup plan otherwise.

“Ephemer?” Skuld asks upon opening the door. “What are you–” Her gaze moves down to his side and she sees the cut there in his shirt and the smear of dried blood, “you’re hurt!”

Ephemer waves his hand dismissively. “It’s okay; it’s just a shallow cut. I actually came to ask if you have any spare towels. And also, um… well, something happened.”

Looking a little bewildered, Skuld opens the door wider and motions for Ephemer to come inside as he launches into a brief summary of what had happened to you while the two of you were out investigating the new data world.

“I don’t really understand what freaked them out, but it was scary, Skuld. The Heartless was coming towards them and they just kind of… froze. And then afterwards they were shaking and breathing funny and I just don’t know what to do.”

Skuld straightens up after retrieving a spare towel from a drawer and lets out a tiny “ _ oh _ ” of realization. “Ephemer, do you think they’re remembering more of the Keyblade War? Maybe the way that Heartless attacked triggered it. You haven’t explained everything yet, have you? I think… I think that might be a conversation we’re going to have to have soon. Especially if you two are going to keep investigating what’s happening in that other world.”

A small drop of dread pools in Ephemer’s stomach. Explain? Now? After what you’ve gone through today, he’s not sure it would be a kindness. And yet the thought of being able to include you in the goings-on of Daybreak Town now that the war has passed is rather enticing. Just… at what cost?

“But what if… what if explaining everything makes it worse?” Ephemer asks anxiously. 

Skuld sighs. “I dunno, Eph, but they’re already having trouble now and they don’t understand why. At least if we explain then we can properly help them process what happened.” She pushes the towel into Ephemer’s hands. "Here, why don't you wash up in my bathroom and I'll get you both some clothes to change into. Then we'll see what the situation is like." 

Ephemer nods, squeezing the folds of the towel for a moment before crossing the room to Skuld's bathroom. “Thanks, Skuld. We’ll come over to see you in a bit if things are… if things go all right.”

She gives him a half-smile and gestures at him to get a move on before she leaves to go fetch a change of clothes for him. Skuld's bathroom seems to be the near mirror-image of Ephemer's on the other end of the hallway. He gratefully peels off his sweaty ripped clothes and washes up as fast as he can, hoping he doesn't keep you waiting long if you finish before he does. 

He pulls on the clothes Skuld grabbed for him and heads back over to his room, opening the door quietly so as not to frighten you. At first he thinks you must still be in the shower, since the room is empty, but then he notices the door to outside is ajar and sees you out on the balcony. 

"Nice evening," he says by way of announcing his presence as he approaches you. 

You turn and smile, looking a bit tired but much better than before. “Yeah. Too bad your room doesn't get the evening sun. Could've watched the sunset later.” You look back out towards the sky. The horizon is so distant from this tall tower that it looks a little hazy. 

“Too bad,” Ephemer agrees, leaning against the railing next to you. “No ice cream, either.”

“You definitely owe me at  _ least _ a year’s worth of ice cream for all the sunsets you missed,” you tease, bumping his shoulder with your own. “I’ve been keeping track.”

He knows you mean it jokingly, but the guilt twists in his stomach uncomfortably. “Peach…” he begins, and you look over at the sudden change of tone.

Your eyebrows draw together and you shake your head, interrupting him. “I know you’ve been busy. It’s okay; I understand. You don’t need to apologize.”

“No, I  _ do _ need to apologize,” Ephemer insists, turning to face you directly. “I was selfish when I decided to go off on my own without telling you, and… and I was worried about seeing you again because I know I messed up. I’m really happy you’re here and that we can talk again, but you don’t know the whole story either.” He rubs at the back of his neck, avoiding your gaze, and looks out at the horizon to continue. “I’m worried you’ll hate me if you know the truth,” he admits, “but I should let you make that choice.”

You look rather bewildered, and your gaze is searching over his face. “Do you want to… go inside and sit down?” you ask. That’s what he should be offering. Somehow it feels like he’s made this about him when you’re the one who’s been hurt; you’re the one who’s been affected the most by this. What if this all comes out wrong, and there's an ideal way of explaining things, of telling you the truth, but he says it wrong and you hate him? What if there  _ is _ no ideal way of explaining and you’re angry with him no matter what he does?

Well, it’s unkind to keep this information to himself, at any rate. Ephemer nods at you and the two of you return to his room. You crawl on top of his covers and sit cross-legged, expectant. 

“Is this about what you did while you were away?” you ask, but he shakes his head, pulling himself onto the bed as well to sit across from you.

“Well. Kind of yes and kind of no. That’s where it starts though, doesn’t it? After we got back from the clock tower that first night, I couldn’t sleep. I was so worried about what happened to you with that Invisible, and I couldn’t stand the thought that you’d get hurt because of something I dragged you into. So I thought I’d go investigate on my own, just in case, so you wouldn’t get in trouble.”

You open your mouth to interrupt but Ephemer ploughs on. “No, I know it was stupid. And that I betrayed your trust, so you thought I didn’t trust you and that’s why I went on without you. I wish I could go back and do it again, but I can’t. And then Master Ava needed me on the other side to help prepare and I  _ couldn’t _ come back to see you, even though I really wanted to.”

You reach forward wordlessly and take Ephemer’s hand, giving it a squeeze. It’s… he appreciates the gesture, but it does make what he needs to explain to you that much more difficult. He takes a deep breath to continue.

“Well, a lot of things happened while I was gone. Preparing for the upcoming war, gathering the Dandelions, the Union conflicts… and, well, the Keyblade War itself. The Dandelions escaped to this world here that I helped prepare, you included. That’s where we are now. That’s why the Foretellers aren’t around; why it’s been left to us new Union leaders to run things. All the Dandelions’ Chirithies helped their wielders to forget about the war so that we could start over fresh.”

Your hand goes still in Ephemer’s and you stare blankly at the covers, brow furrowed. “No, I don’t think I understand. Are you saying the Keyblade war happened and I  _ forgot _ ?” Your eyes meet his. “That Chirithy made me forget?”

Ephemer’s heart sinks. This is indeed going to be rough to explain. “Yes. That’s what the Spirit companions are around for, too. To help get rid of the nightmares. Your Chirithy has told me that you have nightmares most nights now. So I don’t think it’s helping you.”

You withdraw your hands from Ephemer’s back to your lap. “No, that can’t… that’s not… how could I  _ forget _ ? You mean all those wielders I see in my dreams, all that fighting, the people that got struck down by former friends, that  _ happened? _ ”

Ephemer nods and sees you swallow, hard. Your face is taking on that pale ashy colour again but Ephemer’s not sure what he can do except try to explain more, hope you might understand if he can just explain it in the right way…

“You weren’t supposed to take part in the war. All the Dandelions were supposed to get away before it happened. But well, you stayed trying to help people and almost got taken away by the war yourself. Skuld and I came to save you on the battlefield. Your Chirithy brought us to you. I don’t know if you remember that–” you shake your head “--but then we took you to this new Daybreak Town and you’ve been here ever since.”

You stare down at your hands without really seeing, trying to process all this new information, and Ephemer watches you anxiously, wishing there was something more he could do or say but also worrying he’ll make it worse if he tries to make excuses.

“So the people who aren’t here in Daybreak Town now,” you say slowly. “They’re, what, dead? Gone? Claimed by the war? The foretellers, too?”

“Well, we can’t say for sure. All we really know is that the people who are here are safe from the war. We haven’t heard anything from the foretellers since we arrived. It’s possible not everyone is gone, but we have no way to be certain what happened to them.”

You twist your fingers around each other, pursing your lips as you take in Ephemer’s words. Your silence is making him anxious; do you believe him? Are you angry? Upset? Sad? Maybe all of those things. It’s a lot to take in. 

“Chirithy,” you call abruptly, and Ephemer looks up. With a tiny  _ poof _ , your Chirithy arrives on the bed beside the two of you. “Chirithy, you knew about all this, right? The war, and this new Daybreak Town. You were trying to keep the dreams away.”

Your Chirithy looks at Ephemer in surprise, but he nods at them. Chirithy turns to you, “We thought… it was for the best. The rulebook Master Ava gave to the new Union leaders, that’s what it said they should do. Please don’t blame them; they were just trying to do what they thought was best.”

You take a few deep breaths, nodding a few times to yourself. “Okay. Thank you for telling me. You can go now.”

Chirithy’s ears seem to droop but they comply, disappearing with another  _ poof _ . You’re quiet for another long stretch until Ephemer can’t stand it anymore.

“Can I ask what you’re thinking about?” He tilts his head to try to get a read on your expression but your face seems almost blank.

You look up at him. “I don’t think you  _ could _ understand what I’m thinking. Ephemer, I’ve been having these nightmares for weeks. Awful, terrible nightmares where I watch other keyblade wielders get struck down, watch their hearts float away into the sky. I had scrapes and bruises for weeks and couldn't remember where I got them. There’s a scar on my side and just now I’m finding out that it likely really is from another wielder’s keyblade and I can’t even remember. What if I had to fight people I knew? Did I have to strike anyone down just to survive? What did it cost to bring me here?” 

Ephemer doesn’t have any answers to that and anything he says now feels like it’ll make things worse. You’re quiet for a few more moments that feel like an eternity, then you get up off the bed and for a moment Ephemer fears you’re about to leave altogether but you head in the other direction for his balcony again and lean against the railing, staring out at the purple roofs of Daybreak Town. Should he leave you to process things on your own? What if that’s the wrong choice, too? He can’t stand sitting here in silence. “Do you… want to be alone for a bit?” he asks, his voice small. “I can come back in a few hours if you want to stay here, or… I’m really sorry.”

“No, you can stay, Ephemer, it’s just…” You sigh, dropping your head low before pushing off the balcony railing and returning to the room. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t upset. All this happened to me and I had no way of processing it because I thought it couldn’t be real. Sometimes when I’m fighting Heartless, Ephemer, I think I see another keyblade wielder in front of me instead of an enemy and I freeze up. Or else I get this horrible feeling like I'm fighting a battle I don't want to win but I can't lose either or else I'll die. I thought I was going mad. And now I’m learning that I really did experience something like that, and maybe this is my mind’s way of attempting to process what happened even though I can’t remember. So I even feel a bit relieved to learn that I’m not going mad, which seems like a horrible way to feel when other people who experienced the same things as me aren’t even here; they didn’t make it out of the Keyblade War and they’ll never get to see their friends again.”

You pull up gently on the borrowed sweater you’re wearing to expose your side. Ephemer’s breath catches in his throat when he gets a glimpse of the angry pink line slashing across the bottom of your ribs, lightning-like tendrils snaking away from the main scar. It’s about the length of his whole hand, and it looks painful even now. “That’s from the war?” His voice is strained, like an elastic band pulled taut.

You nod. “I think it must be. I don’t remember where it’s from otherwise.”

Ephemer’s at a loss for words. He’d known about the nightmares, of course, but he couldn’t have imagined how difficult not remembering had been for you. “I didn’t… I didn’t realize how hard it was. It was wrong for us to keep it from you; I’m so sorry, peach.” The nickname sounds disingenuous now when he knows how terrible of a friend he’s been. He almost wishes he could take back his words.

“This means Skuld knows too then, right?” you ask, and Ephemer nods. “That makes Brain’s explanation from earlier, before we went into that data world, make so much more sense. I should’ve guessed.”

“Don’t blame the others; they’re all just following what the rulebook said. Skuld’s been really worried about you too.”

A sardonic smile crosses your face. “I guess everyone is in the loop except me. Figures.” Your shoulders sag and you let out a deep sigh. “No wait, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so upset at all of you. I know you were just doing what you thought was best. It’s just… going to take me a while to accept everything.”

Ephemer nods vigorously. “No no, of course. That’s more than understandable. If you need some time to yourself I don’t mind taking you back home tonight, or me and Skuld can bunk together instead if you want to stay here, or…”

You shake your head. “No, that’s fine. Actually I–” You suddenly pull up short and look at Ephemer with wide eyes. “Wait, does that mean the default assumption was that I’d stay here with you tonight?”

It takes Ephemer a second to process what he’d said himself. “Oh, I didn’t mean to – it just sort of came out like that. I hope you don’t feel pressured; whatever you feel comfortable with.”

You flop sideways onto his bed and bring your hands to your face. “I can honestly say this is not how I expected this day to turn out.” You turn so that you’re lying on your back, staring up at the ceiling. “Why does everything have to be so complicated.”

It doesn’t seem like a question you want him to answer, so Ephemer busies himself with examining the cuff of his sleeve, tracing along the stitching with his finger to give you time to think. Everything really is a mess, it’s true. If he could just go back, back to when he made the decision to go down to the clock tower without you, he’d do things differently and then maybe…! But it’s no use wishing he’d acted differently now. 

There’s a tentative knock at the door and you sit up slightly, resting back on your elbows. Ephemer gets up and opens the door to see Skuld, standing a little way back from the door so she’s not visible to you over on the bed. She motions him out and Ephemer turns to signal to you that he’ll just be a moment.

“How are they doing?” Skuld asks quietly once Ephemer has stepped into the hall beside her, twisting a strand of hair around her fingers. “Did you talk about the war?”

Ephemer nods. “I did. I think it’s better now, but… I didn’t realize what they’d been through, Skuld. I feel like an awful friend.”

A pained expression crosses Skuld’s face. “I should’ve been there for them sooner,” she says. “Do you think it’s okay to go in? Are they upset?”

“Yeah, I think they’re a bit upset. It’s a lot to take in, though; I can hardly blame them.” He glances back at the door to his room. “It might be better to go in and talk now rather than later. I can stay out here for a while if you wanna talk on your own.”

Skuld smiles at him weakly. “Yeah, okay. Don’t go too far.”

He nods again and sets off down the hallway without a clear destination in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so much has happened this past week! I hope everyone got to enjoy Melody of Memory. It's so lovely getting to listen to the excellent music of KH. 
> 
> I have something a bit unusual for the note this time -- I've been helping to make a game called Our Life: Beginnings & Always by GB Patch, and it was officially released yesterday! You can [download it for free on Steam for Windows and Linux](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1129190/Our_Life_Beginnings__Always/) or on [itch.io for Mac and Android](https://gbpatch.itch.io/our-life) as well. It's a slice-of-life visual novel where you get to develop your relationship with the boy next door as you grow from kids up to adults. If you've enjoyed this fic - particularly the fluffy friendship chapters in Sound of the Sunset - I think you'll really enjoy Our Life. It's wonderfully inclusive and charming with well-developed characters and truly excellent writing. It would mean a lot to me if you checked it out, _and_ it's free so you can't get much better than that!
> 
> I'd love to know what you think of the game! I'm back in business on [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com) now that KHMoM is out and I don't have to avoid spoilers, so feel free to send me a message there with your thoughts.


	16. Hearts as One

There’s another small knock at the door and you pull yourself up into sitting position again. 

“Hey, it’s me,” a familiar voice says, and Skuld’s face appears in the crack between the door and the doorframe. “Do you mind if I come in?”

“You can come in,” you say, shuffling backwards on the bed so she has a place to sit down. She approaches you a bit cautiously, looking rather nervous as she perches on the edge of the mattress. 

“So, Ephemer told you about what’s been happening, huh?” she says, looking down at her hands and running her thumb along her knuckles, hands clasped together nervously. “How are you feeling?”

“Well it doesn’t get easier the more I think about it,” you say, a bitter taste in your mouth from the words. “I guess that’s why you guys didn’t see me for the last couple months, huh?”

Skuld’s face falls at your words and part of you wishes you could take them back, but the other part of you is still upset at this betrayal and wants them to know it hurt. “We – I know it wasn’t the best way to deal with it. Ephemer was afraid that if we visited you and tried to go back to how things were that you’d remember more things about the war and it would be worse for you. We truly did believe that it was better for you to forget. And…” She looks down at her hands again, twisting her fingers around each other. “...and I felt guilty. I felt like I didn’t try hard enough to get you to come with the Dandelions sooner, and that it was my fault that you had to see those awful things.”

You open your mouth to speak but Skuld looks up at you again and shakes her head before you start. “No, you don’t need to say anything. It’s my issue to work through and I dealt with it poorly. You have a right to be upset with us for not communicating with you well.”

Somehow everyone telling you that it’s okay to be upset, that you should be angry, or sad, or frustrated, makes you  _ not _ want to feel that way. But there’s this pool of resentment that’s just simmering away somewhere in your chest, a feeling of abandonment and betrayal from people you thought you could trust. You  _ know _ they have good reasons and that they were just trying to do what they thought was best. But all the good intentions don’t make your feelings invalid, either.

“You guys can’t hide this kind of stuff from me anymore,” you say, a hint of pleading in your voice you wish you could erase. “I need to know what’s going on. And if we’re going to be friends, you’ve got to tell me about the good things  _ and _ the bad ones. None of this hiding stuff from me because you think it’s best.  _ I’m _ the one who gets to decide what’s best for me.”

Skuld’s eyes widen and for a moment it almost looks like there are tears in her eyes. But then she masters it and looks away to the side again, nodding. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. I’m really sorry it had to come to this before we had this conversation.”

You hate feeling like you’re hurting your friends, but things have to change moving forward. “Chirithy, you too,” you say, looking to the side expectantly. Your Chirithy appears in a puff of white. “I don’t want any of you making big decisions like this for me.  _ I’m _ in charge of determining what I can and cannot handle. All this ‘for my own protection’ stuff… it’s just… that’s not how this friendship should work.” 

Chirithy listens quietly, their ears drooping. “You’re right. We thought it was for the best, but we didn’t let you have any say. This is my fault; I’m the one who tried to make you forget.”

Skuld reaches towards your Chirithy to pat them gently on the shoulder. “No, it was all of us. We could have stopped and decided that the Foretellers were wrong to want everyone to forget. We had that power. But we went with it anyway. I’ll take responsibility for that too.” She looks at you, her brown eyes shining. “You deserved better than this. I understand if… this means things can’t be the way they were before. I do still want to be your friend… if you want that, too.”

There’s part of you that wants to remain angry; to throw their actions back at them and give them an idea of what it was like living with these scars, both literal and figurative. But the other part has missed your friends so much. You take a deep breath and let a small smile creep up onto your cheeks. “Yeah, I do,” you reply. “I want to make this work again. I’ve missed you, Skuld.”

A watery smile breaks over Skuld’s face too and she leans forward to hug you. “I’ve missed you too.” Her embrace is warm and comforting and you hold each other for a few moments before she lets you pull back. With a mischievous smile, she adds, “Ephemer’s good in moderation, but he needs someone like you to balance him out.”

“That’s not very nice,” says a voice by the door. Ephemer pokes his head into the room once more, a hopeful smile on his face. “Can I join?”

You nod and motion him over as both you and Skuld make room on the bed for him. He sits down carefully beside you, worry creasing his forehead. “I just wanted to apologize again –”

You shake your head and quiet him. “I know. I was saying to Skuld and Chirithy – I  _ am _ upset with both of you. Being on my own for so long and having all this information withheld was an awful feeling. So if we want to be friends, you need to keep me in the loop for both the good news and the bad. I’ll get to decide how I deal with things when I know them.”

Ephemer nods vigorously. “Absolutely. You’re absolutely right. I’m really so–”

You cut him off by pulling him into a hug as well, then motion for Skuld and Chirithy to join in. Their combined weight causes you to fall backwards onto the covers in a pile of limbs and warmth and friendship. You’d missed this so much. Maybe things won’t be the same –  _ can’t _ be the same – but these are your best friends. You’ll figure this out together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The friends are together again at last! Really, truly, without those secrets between them now. It's nice to see them all together :)
> 
> Anyway, I did _not_ see the TWEWY announcement coming this week??? Thirteen years later and there's actually another game??? Wild. Unfortunately after just coming out from under my box after avoiding KHMoM spoilers, now it looks like I might have to get it out again to avoid Neo TWEWY spoilers lol. Given that the release date is summer 2021, I might wait until there's another trailer or major update on it before I block everything on it. You're welcome to send me messages on Tumblr and such, though I might not reblog stuff so much so I can keep my exposure to spoilers low later on.
> 
> Thank you to those who were able to check out Our Life from my notes on the last chapter! I hope it can keep you occupied while waiting for a new chapter~


	17. Old Friends, Old Rivals

“Ephemer!” The tiny voice of your Chirithy causes Ephemer to turn around in surprise on his way to the kitchen hoping to find something for lunch. 

“Chirithy?” he asks, alarm causing his heart to skip a beat. “Did something happen? Are they okay?” He and Skuld had agreed that it would be best for you to take a break before returning to investigate the new world, given all that's happened and the new information you surely need to process before returning, but ever since your recent conversation Ephemer can’t help but worry about how you’re handling things. 

Your Chirithy shakes their head vehemently. “No, no, nothing like that! Just... I know you said it would be better for them not to have missions this week with everything, but they’re really restless.”

Oh… that sounds like you. Ephemer’s mind is drawn back to the time you’d injured your foot and had to stay cooped up for the whole week in order to let it rest. You hadn’t been terribly pleased about that arrangement, either. At least he’d been able to visit you after his missions.

He crouches down next to your Chirithy. “How are things? Have they had any more nightmares? Maybe I should visit… do you think that’s okay? There was sort of a lot happening the last time we saw each other.”

Chirithy lets out what sounds like a tiny sigh. “They did have another nightmare the other night. I don’t think they want to let me know if they’re not doing okay, though. It might help if you talked to them.”

He rocks backwards on his heels, thinking. Well, he was supposed to have a bit of a break for lunch, anyway. “Where are they now? Maybe I could check up on them before I have to go back.”

“They were going to go to the marketplace to get some groceries,” Chirithy says, ears twitching. “I think it would be good if you saw them. I should go.” And with a poof, your Chirithy is gone as well.

There’s a giddy sense of excitement welling up in Ephemer’s chest at the thought of being able to see you again so soon, but he has to remind himself that you’re probably not up for hanging out the same way as you used to. It’s just… his best friend! Back in the same world together! Even if things aren’t the same because of what he’s done, he’s willing to go the distance to make it up to you. He passes Lauriam on his way out of the tower, who seems surprised to see him.

“What’s the rush?” Lauriam asks.

“I’m just headed out to get some food. Should be back within the hour!” The words all come out in the same breath and then he’s down the hallway and out of sight. Brain might not be pleased to hear he’s headed out, he won’t be gone long. He wasn’t happy to hear that his main investigator into the new world would be out of commission either, but he also seemed reluctant to find someone else to send in there, so the investigation is at an impasse for the time being. 

Chirithy said you’d be at the market, Ephemer reminds himself as he wanders past the fountain square and over to the market stalls. Will you still be there? He scans the heads of the various shoppers, looking for the one he recognizes.

“Ephemer?” 

He turns and grins when he sees you behind him, holding a bag of purchases. “Hey, Peach.” The words come out a little more hesitantly than he’d expected.

You smile too. “What are you doing here?” That’s a good sign, right? That you seem happy to see him. 

Does he tell you that your Chirithy came to find him? ...No, then it sounds like they’re all talking behind your back. Or would  _ not _ telling you mean he’s talking about you behind your back? That’s worse, right? But he’s not just here because your Chirithy asked. “Your Chirithy told me where to find you. I wanted to see how you’re doing.”

“Oh. Well I’m… things are good. Do you want to help me get the last things on my list? I wanted to buy some fruit yet.”

“Of course! Where do we go?”

You guide him through the crowd to a stall selling tiny baskets of berries and pick out some strawberries for yourself, handing over munny to the Moogle running the stall. Ephemer’s attention is captured by the small stand beside the fruit, however, which is selling hot pretzels. Well, he knows you like sea salt ice cream, and pretzels are salty too, so… “Two pretzels, please.”

“Hungry, are you?” you tease after finishing your transaction and coming up beside him again.

“Yeah,” he says, taking the pretzels from the Moogle and holding one out for you. “Here.”

“For me?” Your eyes are wide, then you smile and take the treat from him. “Thanks. You’re sweet. We should go somewhere to eat these.”

The two of you wind your way through the crowd again until you’re out of the market and wandering through the park beside it. “Nice day,” Ephemer notes. 

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have worn long sleeves today,” you complain, pushing up your sleeves and tugging at the neckline. 

“Oh, we can stop by your place if you want something else,” Ephemer says, slowing to look at you. Curiously, he notices you seem to be wearing a shorter sleeved shirt underneath this one. “Or you can take off a layer, can’t you?”

You seem to pale slightly at the thought. “It’s… okay,” you say.

“Well, no! It’s not good if you’re overheating. Maybe we should have gotten something to drink with the pretzels too...”

You purse your lips and look down at your shirt, then hand your pretzel to Ephemer and tug the sleeves off your arms, pulling it over your head to reveal a sleeveless top. And then Ephemer realizes why you might have been reluctant to wear short sleeves – without the long sleeves to hide it, he can see that you have a plainly visible scar line extending from near your collarbone across your shoulder. It’s pink and raised off your skin slightly, a harsh line with several smaller tendrils snaking off the main branch. Like a lightning strike. 

Like a wound from a keyblade.

You notice him staring and turn away, your face growing red as you walk on, forcing Ephemer to jog to catch up as he mentally chastises himself for reacting exactly the way you thought he would. 

“I don’t know what it’s from, if you’re wondering,” you say, and the playfulness in your voice from earlier is replaced by a hard edge. 

He’s not sure if he should ask about it or not, but his curiosity gets the better of him. “Is it like the other one? The one you showed me earlier?”

Instinctively you bring a hand to your side, to where Ephemer knows you have another nasty scar just like the one on your shoulder. “Yeah,” you say sadly. “It hurts, sometimes. I don’t think wounds from keyblades really ever go away.”

“Not even with a healing spell?”

You shake your head, jaw set as you continue walking forward.

Ephemer catches your arm as you pass by a set of stairs he knows lead down to a bench. “Do you want to sit for a moment? We’re not in any rush.”

Your shoulders slump. “Okay.” You allow him to lead you down to the bench, which sits on a patch of grass next to one of the canals that flow throughout Daybreak Town. He hands you back your pretzel and you both sit staring out at the canal for several quiet moments, munching on the soft treat.

“Have you remembered anything else?” Ephemer asks cautiously, lowering his pretzel to look over at you.

You bring your feet up to the bench as well, both hands clutching the paper wrapping around the pretzel. “Not really,” you say, shaking your head. “I do kind of remember something to do with a dark Chirithy? I can’t remember properly but my own Chirithy says they were there. And that I got this from it.” You raise your chin so Ephemer can see another faint pink line along your jaw, this one more old and faded looking, or at least further along in the healing process. “I remember more about running into it with Skuld though. And I didn’t fight it then – just those darkling creatures. So I’m not quite sure how I got this, exactly.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

“What, about remembering?” you ask, a bitter laugh in your voice. “It’s great, I always wanted to be reminded of the terrible things that happened to me through horrific nightmares.” You sigh and rest your forehead against your knees, your voice muffled as you speak. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean for it to come off like that. Thank you for asking. I guess the real answer is that it feels awful but it’s better than not knowing.”

A little unsure of himself, Ephemer shuffles closer to you on the bench and cautiously reaches out a hand to rest on your arm, watching to be sure he doesn’t touch the scar on your shoulder. You let out a breath and let go of your knees, reaching around behind Ephemer too so you can hold him in a sideways hug. He rubs his hand along your back in what he hopes is a soothing way and you let him hold you like that for several minutes, listening to the water as it flows up against the stone canal walls and the chatter from the market not too far away.

"Thank you," you say finally, pulling back slightly.

Ephemer tugs you close again for one last sideways hug before releasing you. "Anytime."

You sigh and look down at your pretzel, with only a few bites left.

“Do you want a bite of mine?” he asks, offering his pretzel your way.

You frown. “Aren’t they the same?”

Ephemer shrugs. “Why don’t you try it and find out?”

One eyebrow raised, you put your hand over his to guide the pretzel over and take a bite. After a few moments spent chewing, you swallow and say, “It’s the same pretzel.” But there’s a hint of amusement back in your tone this time.

Ephemer takes another bite of the pretzel as well. “So now you know.”

You roll your eyes and idly offer your own pretzel his way. “You want a bite of mine then?”

He leans forward obligingly to bite off a section. “This one’s tasty too.”

You let out a tiny breath of laughter at that. “Sure,” you say as you finish the last bite.

“Hey, sharing is caring.” He stretches his arms after finishing his own pretzel and slouches in his seat, stretching his legs out far in front of him.

“You know,” you say after a short silence, “I never said thank you.”

“For the pretzel? No, you said thanks. I mean, you’re welcome, in any case, but–”

“No, not the pretzel,” you say, interrupting him. “For… rescuing me. From the battlefield. I don’t remember it yet but… you and Chirithy and Skuld came to get me, right?” Oh. Ephemer sits up again to look over at you, but you’re staring down at the ground, folding the paper that held the pretzel over and over in your hands. “So, thank you. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

He’s not sure how to respond to that. “It’s… I mean we…” He lets out a puff of air and you glance up to look at him before returning your gaze to the ground. “I wish we could have done more. I  _ would _ have done more, if I’d been able to help sooner, or… see you before everything happened.”

You shake your head. “I get it. I just wanted to say thank you.”

The memory swirls around in his head again and he shifts his position to stare out at the canal again. “It was… really scary seeing you on the battlefield. I was worried we wouldn’t make it in time.” The sheer panic upon first seeing you is something he’d prefer to never repeat. At least with your Chirithy around he and Skuld knew you had to be alive still, but the fear seized him like an icy hand when they finally came across you lying amidst the keyblade-strewn wasteland of a battlefield.

He’s brought out of his thoughts when you take his hand, tucking your thumb under his palm with your hand on top of his. “You made a joke when you saw me,” he says, the memory bringing a small smile back to his face.

“I did?”

“Yeah. You were exhausted and hurting but when you saw me, you tried your best to smile and told me ‘you’re late’.”

You let out another breath of laughter. “Good to know I still had a sense of humour.” You squeeze his hand once before letting go to link your arm around his and rest your head on his shoulder. “It’s weird that I can’t remember. Maybe some of it is better left forgotten, but… I don’t know how to feel about it yet.”

Ephemer rests his chin on top of your hair. “We’ll figure it out, whatever happens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beginning of December already! Can't believe 2020 is almost over. 
> 
> One thing I've been thinking over that I wanted to give you a heads-up about -- I plan to release at least two more regular chapters of Colors of the Sunrise over the next two Tuesdays, and then on the 22nd I'll be uploading a standalone winter holiday-themed story (same characters and general setup, just with an ambiguous timeline as to when it takes place). After that, I'll be taking a couple of weeks off to relax over the holidays and build up a bit more of a writing buffer before posting more chapters. ~~Maybe if I'm lucky the canon KHUx storyline will actually progress, too (or not)~~.
> 
> I have approximately 9 more chapters already written at the moment, so rest assured that those will be posted sometime in 2021 when I resume posting. Can you believe I've posted nearly a year's worth of chapters between this fic and Sound of the Sunset? I certainly hadn't imagined that when I began writing it. Thank you for reading this fic and I hope the rest of your 2020 is lovely :)


	18. The Dread of Night

“Hey, Skuld. I’m sorry it’s so late. Were you asleep?”

Your friend rubs at her eye and seems to take extra effort to stifle a yawn. “No, it’s okay. Is something wrong?”

“No, not really; I just couldn’t get my mind to settle and I didn’t want to bother Ephemer when he’s been so busy lately with the stuff in the new world so I thought I’d come visit you.”

She smiles warmly and opens her door wider. “Come on in.”

You look around, taking in the dressers and the accessories strewn over the nightstand. Skuld’s style is clearly evident in the items left around her room – you recognize the jacket she wore the last time you saw her hanging over one of the bedposts, and her usual combat boots are untied by the door.

“Sorry it’s a bit messy,” she says, walking back to her bed. “I’ve just been so tired I haven’t put all my things away yet.” She pats the space beside her. “Here, sit down. What was bothering you?”

You join her under the covers and prop yourself up to sit leaning against her headboard. “It’s nothing unusual. Mostly it’s just a feeling of… I don’t know how to describe it. I feel like I’m about to be attacked or that there’s something I should be watching out for.”

“Like the Heartless?” Skuld asks, pulling her knees up to her chest.

“No, not really, it’s not that specific. I just get kind of anxious and it feels like my body is on high alert even when I  _ know _ there’s nothing wrong. I sometimes even summon my keyblade in my sleep because I dream I need it to fend off some kind of invader…” You shake your head, starting to feel like you’ve said too much. “I mean, it’s okay. I’m okay. I just couldn’t really be on my own for a bit. I think being idle this last while is making it worse.”

Skuld reaches her arms out for you, eyes wide with sympathy. You let her pull you into a sideways hug. “I wish you didn’t have to deal with this,” she says, stroking your hair gently. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just having you here is good,” you say, letting yourself be held. There doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about the constant vigilance, but having people around to reassure you that you’re safe makes it a little easier. “And I want to get back to doing missions again. Having nothing to do all day is… not great.”

“Hm… well, if you’re feeling up to it… Does Chirithy know?” Skuld asks. She pulls back a little and pats her lap so you can put your head there, staring up at the ceiling while she strokes your hair. 

“Yeah,” you say, closing your eyes. “Chirithy wants your go-ahead for giving me missions though. They’re the one who suggested I come see one of you if I can’t sleep. Chirithy always does so much for me too, especially with the nightmares and everything. I’m sorry for making you all worry about me.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Skuld says. “You’re my friend. I want to be here to support you. And I know Ephemer and Chirithy feel the same way.”

“Yes but…” You open your eyes to stare at the ceiling again, struggling for words. “I don’t want any of you to feel like you have to take care of me or anything. Or that you  _ have _ to comfort me or check in all the time. If you need some time and space to yourself,” you say, looking up at her, “tell me, okay? You should take care of yourself too.”

She sighs and shakes her head, smiling a little. “I mean, I will. There you go again, worrying about everyone else more than yourself. It’s okay to ask for help. You’re not a burden; I’m glad I can be here for you.”

It’s times like this where you feel silly for all the time you’ve spent worrying over being a bother to your friends. You wish you could remember this feeling so that the doubt won’t creep in again. “Thank you,” is all you can think to say.

“Of course.” She’s quiet for a few more moments as she strokes your hair softly. “Do you want me to tell Ephemer about what happened?”

You think for a moment. “I… well, I don’t want to worry him, or make him feel bad.” Skuld’s expression tells you she’s about to protest, so you add, “But I’ll leave it up to you if you think he should know.”

She nods and lets out a long breath. “Well, if you’re looking for stories to distract yourself from your thoughts, want me to tell you about a mission Ephemer and I went on together, back when we were in the same party?”

“Oh, that sounds excellent,” you say. 

“We were still the only two people in my party at the time. I was a bit worried about coming off as too forceful, but I was also really eager to establish ourselves as a party so I asked for a mission somewhere with lots of Heartless so we could get down to work and collect plenty of Lux. It was actually our first mission out together…

* * *

“So how’d you land us this mission?” Ephemer asked, hands in his pockets as he trailed along beside Skuld through the jungle path. Skuld, for her part, already had her keyblade out and was rubbing her thumb along the handle nervously. But it was a good kind of nervous, right? It was good to be a little nervous when you were trying new things.

“I just asked, really,” she said, glancing at him. He looked a lot more laid-back than she was feeling. “You up for a good battle?”

He glanced down at her keyblade, eyes wide. “What, with you?”

“Huh? No, with the Heartless.” She swung her keyblade away from her body, testing its feel. “You gotta pull your weight in this party.”

“Well, you’re the leader,” he said, then abruptly came to a halt. “Did you hear something?”

“You can’t pull that one on me,” she said, trying not to show how flustered she felt. The jungle foliage already felt like it was pressing in on them as they traversed the narrow path.

“No, really,” he said, waving a hand to shush her. “It was like a bang. Listen. Is that growling?”

Eyeing him cautiously, Skuld nevertheless fell silent and strained her ears for any suspicious sounds. Actually, it sounded like he was right. There was some kind of growling sound in the distance, and it was getting closer. And now they could hear what sounded like some large machine perhaps, or the sound of many, many running feet, but that seemed odd.

“Hey, do you think –” Skuld began, and Ephemer nodded in reply, materializing his keyblade. 

“Heartless,” he agreed.

Almost as soon as he spoke a black shape shot out of the darkness, all claws and sharp teeth and blank, glowing yellow eyes. Ephemer jumped backwards in surprise and Skuld nearly fell over a stray tree root on the path. The Heartless was lithe and catlike, almost like a panther. It bunched its long, sinewy muscles together in preparation to leap for Ephemer and Skuld did the only thing she could think of at the time – “Fire!”

The spell exploded at the panther’s feet, causing it to snarl and spin around. A bush near where her spell went off began to smoke slightly. “Watch yourself!” Ephemer shouted at her as the panther’s tail lashed from side to side, preparing to jump at her. It bunched its weight into its back legs and launched itself forward, snarling viciously. Skuld threw up her keyblade to fend it off but then it was tumbling sideways and she glanced over to see that Ephemer had nicked its back leg, throwing it off balance and causing it to careen sideways into a tree. It rolled to its feet and on impulse Skuld cast another hurried fire spell, aiming at its feet more in the hopes of scaring it off than hurting it for fear of making it angrier than it already was. An odd scream echoed in the not-so-far distance and the Heartless flinched and skirted off into the undergrowth.

“Careful with the fire!” Ephemer yelled, and Skuld glanced down to see that some of the undergrowth was sizzling dangerously where she’d cast her spell.

“Sorry!” she called, holding her keyblade out for another spell to douse it with water.

Just then another Heartless came running full-throttle past the two of them, several more close at its heels. On impulse Skuld dove for Ephemer, dragging them both to the ground as the panther Heartless leapt overhead. The screaming got louder and she saw that some bizarre creature seemed to be… riding the Heartless? That didn’t make sense. Abruptly the Heartless the creature was riding came to a halt, flinging its rider further into the jungle with a shriek. It didn’t seem human, Skuld thought, but it also seemed like it needed help. The last of the Heartless raced past them and Skuld got gingerly to her feet, offering Ephemer a hand up.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, but Ephemer was already running.

“That creature needs our help,” he called, holding his keyblade out in front of himself to slash his way through the undergrowth, Skuld close at his heels.

The trees parted not far down the slope, revealing a rocky cliffside with a peaked outcropping where the same creature that had been riding the Heartless was now backing up slowly, away from the hungry beasts that pursued it. 

“You… killer, heh, jaguar…” the creature was saying feebly in a surprisingly human voice.

“Is that a talking horse?” Ephemer whispered to Skuld so as not to catch the Heartless’s attention.

“No, I think it’s a llama,” she whispered back.

Just then the llama noticed them and yelled “Help! You have to save me!” causing the panther Heartless to turn around and see Skuld and Ephemer. 

“Oh, drat,” Ephemer said, dropping into a fighting stance. 

“That’s an understatement!” Skuld called back, wondering if they could make a run for it but it was already too late – the first Heartless was nearly upon them. “Thunder!” she called and its black fur sizzled with electricity, which zipped between nearby Heartless, slowing them. “There are too many!” she yelled.

“No, it’s okay!” Ephemer yelled back, though he didn’t look so sure of his words. The nearest panther lunged at him and he swung his keyblade wildly while dodge-rolling to the side. “I’ve changed my mind!” he said, getting to his feet, and Skuld had to agree. These Heartless were huge and fast and she and Ephemer were mere infants in their keyblade abilities. 

“You got a plan?” she yelled, sending a blizzard spell into the throng of panthers still slowly advancing on them. Several of them parted to skitter away from its icy path, snarling. It didn’t even seem like they’d managed to lure the Heartless away from the talking llama – he was still backed up on that cliff edge, and if they didn’t do something  _ now _ he was going to either be lunch or a llama-shaped hole in the ground at the bottom of the cliff. 

Just then, before Ephemer could reply, there came a sort of yodelling cry from further away. The panthers stopped to look in the direction of the noise. A large man came swinging towards them on a vine, aiming for the llama, whose head perked up at the prospect of being rescued. The man cut a path through the throng of Heartless and… missed picking up the llama. Skuld and Ephemer exchanged a confused glance, but only for a moment as one of the panthers, deciding the yelling man was of no further consequence, began to advance once more, its mouth open wide to reveal its sharp teeth. 

Then the man was swinging back towards them, and this time he really did manage to grab the llama and they were both swinging off farther than Skuld could see. “Think that’s our cue to go!” Skuld said, casting another thunder spell at the Heartless, hoping to distract them while she grabbed Ephemer’s arm and made a run for it, crashing through the undergrowth as fast as their feet would take them. It was near-impossible to see in the darkness, branches and leaves whipping past their faces, and then abruptly the ground sloped downwards and they were sliding and tumbling and Skuld’s keyblade vanished from her hand as she fell backwards, skidding down the slope, hands scraping against the ground for purchase until the ground levelled out and the two of them were lying in a pile of dust and leaves.

“O-ow…” Ephemer said, rolling onto his side and flexing his hands. Skuld looked up to see if the Heartless had followed them, but it seemed they didn’t want to take a tumble down the side of the cliff as Skuld and Ephemer had done. That, at least, was something to be thankful for. 

“Here, let me see,” Skuld said, getting to her feet. She was sore all over from the fall and there were bits of leaves and dirt and twigs stuck to her clothes and skin, but it was her duty as a party leader to make sure her fellow party member was all right first. And she… she’d bungled this mission pretty badly, hadn’t she. Neither of them had been equipped to deal with this many Heartless. 

Ephemer got to his feet as she approached. He was inspecting his hands in the dim light, where Skuld could see dark lines that she couldn’t be sure if they were dirt or blood. 

“Oh, Ephemer, I’m really sorry,” she said, summoning her keyblade to her hand once more and raising it into the air. “ _ Heal _ . There. I hope that helps a little.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, trying to hide his hands from her view. “Just a few scrapes from tumbling down that hill. I’ll be all right.” His eyes were wide and anxious. “How about you? You looked like you took a really rough fall. And there was that Heartless too, did it get you?”

A little overwhelmed by his concern, Skuld tried her best to bring the situation back to something she was familiar with. “Let’s go back to Daybreak Town,” she said, turning away from him and raising her keyblade to summon the familiar portal. “We don’t want to be here when the Heartless figure out how to get down here.”

She stepped through the portal, unable to really look at him until they were through and then she felt she had to face him to apologize for how poorly she’d handled everything. “Look, Ephemer, I’m so sorry for how things turned out. I didn’t mean for it to get so out of hand and I was too brash in taking on a mission this hard when I’m not experienced enough in battle and… are you laughing at me?”

She came up short as she turned to see that Ephemer was, against all expectations,  _ smiling _ at her. His smile faltered a little when he saw the expression on her face, and he hurried to say, “No, no, I’m not laughing at you. Just… that was the most interesting mission I’ve had in ages. You’re definitely a one-of-a-kind party leader.”

“I… er… thanks?” She struggled to think of something to say in response. “I’m glad you were with me. I’d probably have been cut to ribbons if you hadn’t got the legs out from under that first Heartless.”

“And  _ I’d _ have been toast if you hadn’t cast thunder at that pack of Heartless to slow them down. So, can we call it even?” He grinned at her, dirt-streaked face and muddy clothes and scratched hands and all, still eager to be a part of her party. Skuld could feel her shoulders slumping in relief.

“Yeah, we can call it even. So, I’ll see you for the next mission?” She tried to regain some of her more authoritative tone. 

“Yeah, I’ll see you then,” he said. “Bye, Skuld!”

And with a nod and a little skip in his step, he was headed across the plaza. That might have been the first time he referred to her by name instead of as his party leader. It was kind of a nice feeling. 

* * *

Skuld finishes her story and looks down at you, seeing that you’ve fallen asleep sometime along the way. Well, you sure need the rest, even if you didn’t hear the end of the story. She can finish the parts you didn’t hear some other time. She cozies down under her covers some more and reaches over to turn off her bedside lamp. Despite it all, she’s lucky to have two of her best friends at her side again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Someday I'd really love to see an Emperor's New Groove world in KH; I think it'd be a lot of fun! 
> 
> Reminder that this is the second-last regular chapter I'll be uploading before taking a break for the holidays. I'll be uploading a separate winter-themed chapter on the 22nd as well. Thanks so much for reading!


	19. Deep Anxiety

“And that’s all for today!” Chirithy says cheerily from atop one of the finely-pruned hedges surrounding the rose garden in Wonderland.

Your shoulders slump and you let out an aggravated sigh. “Look, I get that you’re worried about me and you don’t want me to do hard missions, but a mission where I only have to take out two Heartless? Really? I’m  _ fine, _ Chirithy. I want to get back to my regular missions.”

Chirithy’s ears twitch and they turn away from you so you walk around the hedge to face them again. “I thought we were going to be more honest with each other,” you say.

“I just worry, you know,” Chirithy says in a small voice. 

“I  _ do _ know. And I’m glad you’re here with me and Lucky. But you can’t protect me from everything.”

Chirithy lets out a tiny sigh. “Yeah, but… you should do a few more of these small missions. Just to be sure everything is okay.”

You’re starting to think it was easier to be forced to stay home with an injured foot than it is to be given these frankly insulting missions. At least there was more of a reason for you to be sitting idle. “...I’m going back to Daybreak Town.”

Chirithy disappears with a  _ poof _ and you open a portal back to the fountain plaza. Maybe if Chirithy won’t listen… someone in the tower might. Ephemer said Brain hasn’t found anyone else to investigate that new world yet, and you’re  _ ready _ to go back, if they would just let you. Your mind made up, you set off toward the tower.

It still feels a bit like you shouldn’t be here as you take the elevator up to the top of the clock tower. Maybe Chirithy will show up to chastise you for coming. You chew your lip as the elevator slows to a stop outside of the place Ephemer referred to as the “control room”. The last times you were up here, you’d always been accompanied by him. He had opened the door with his keyblade, too… will you have to do that? Maybe it won’t let you in if you’re not a Union leader. Oh, maybe it  _ was _ foolish coming here, overestimating your own importance in the investigation into the new world and getting upset over a couple of easy missions. The other leaders might be upset with you for just barging in without either Skuld or Ephemer accompanying you.

You’re still debating what to do when there’s a creak and the door to the control room opens and someone emerges, stopping in their tracks when they see you.

“Oh, it’s you.” Brain tips his hat up slightly to get a look at you. “Finally.” He leans to the side as if looking behind you, then shrugs. “Well, come in, then.”

Your body unfreezes and you follow him into the room with all the monitors lining the walls. Ven is sitting at the table there, and he glances up in surprise when you and Brain enter. Brain continues past the younger boy to sit at the desk again and types something into the computer.

“Oh, hi! It’s been a while since you were here,” Ven says, jumping to his feet. His smile puts you more at ease. Neither he nor Brain seem to be bothered by the fact that you’re here on your own.

“Hi, Ven. Nice to see you. How are things?”

Ven lets out a long sigh and gestures back at Brain. “He won’t let any of us go to the data world, so I’ve been helping Ephemer do research on it from this end. We don’t really know anything about it, though. Are you here to investigate again? Can I come?”

“Um…” you turn your gaze away from Ven’s eager stare to look at Brain. 

“No, Ventus, you can’t go. We don’t know enough about this new world and I don’t want to risk sending the leaders in there if I don’t have to.” He turns to look over his shoulder at you. “No offense.”

“It’s fine, I understand.” You give Ven a sympathetic smile. “Sorry.”

“Ephemer got to go with you last time,” he complains, returning to his chair and slouching down so he’s barely touching the seat.

“I know,” you say, walking further into the room. “It’s better if he stays behind though, too. I can take care of myself.”

“Glad to hear you’re ready to get back at it,” Brain says, swivelling his chair around to face you. “You want to wait for Ephemer to come back before you go?”

He's just going to… you won't even see Ephemer before you leave? You'd kind of thought you'd just come up here to talk with Ephemer or Skuld about going back, but… There's a tiny pause before you shake your head. “That’s all right. If you need me in there, I’m ready to go now.”

“Sure.” He turns around to press a few buttons on his keyboard. “The connection is back online. I don’t think it’s as strong a connection as last time, so if anything starts seeming weird in the new world, you should come back just in case.” He hits a few final keys and that same glitchy portal appears by the wall. “Your goal is to find the source of the glitches. All right?”

You nod. “Got it.” 

“Good luck!” Ven says.

“Thanks. See you later.” Your palms feel sweaty but you take a deep breath and enter the portal alone.

* * *

Is it good luck or bad luck that Ephemer wasn’t there when you came to the tower? Is he going to be mad that you’ve gone on your own? But he  _ should _ stay back at the tower; there’s no sense putting any of the Union leaders at risk when you’re perfectly capable of doing this yourself. And you  _ are _ capable. You’re not sure why everyone decided they need to coddle you so much now that you know “the truth” when it’s not as though you’d been incapable of doing missions before you found out. Brain evidently thinks you're still capable. 

“Lucky?” you call quietly, though your voice echoes in the empty tunnel. Your spirit companion dutifully answers the call, appearing in the form of a sleek otter and winding their way around your ankles before forging ahead of you. You breathe a sigh of relief. It’s good knowing you have Lucky beside you as you prepare to investigate this new world again. You click your tongue to get their attention and hold out your arms to scoop them up and hold next to your chest.

“It’s important to investigate this new world, isn’t it Lucky? We’ve gotta figure out what’s going on with all these glitches.” Lucky squirms in your arms and crawls onto your shoulder so they can curl up around the back of your neck. You pat their head absentmindedly. “And there’s no need to hold up the investigation on my behalf. We were doing missions just fine before all this, weren’t we? This’ll be fine.”

Lucky lets out a squeak in response. “Maybe I should have waited for Ephemer to come back, though. He might’ve just told me I shouldn’t go. Or he would have wanted to come. I just… I can do this.  _ We _ can do this, you and me. I don’t want him or Skuld or Chirithy to treat me differently because of this whole war thing. And the… nightmares and stuff. But you’re here if I freeze up again. Right? So we’ll be okay.”

There’s a clang from further down the tunnel and Lucky leaps off your shoulders as you summon your keyblade, ready for any sign of danger. This part of the tunnel is so dim you can hardly see.  _ “Fire!” _ you call, sending a ball of flames down the tunnel that you jog after, staying close to the light it gives off to check for Heartless. 

There’s nothing for another long stretch of the tunnel, but shortly before the end you see some of those glitching box creatures you’d fought with Ephemer and Ven earlier. “Gravity!” you shout, forcing the glitches closer to the ground and within reach. The spell seems to have temporarily prevented them from flickering in and out of view, and you manage to dispatch two of the three before the spell wears off. Your keyblade passes right through the third one, however, which dissolves into a series of cubes and reforms a short distance away. Lucky chitters angrily and leaps at the creature, slashing at it with their claws. You try to swing at it as well but it keeps vanishing and reappearing before your keyblade hits it. Frustrated, you almost trip and fall over one of the rounded bits of floor as you lunge for it, catching yourself awkwardly with one hand before stumbling forward several steps to recover. “Stop!” you shout once you’ve gathered the energy for the spell, freezing the glitch in its tracks a few paces away. Lucky growls and charges at the glitch once more, slashing at it before the spell wears off and it fizzles and vanishes.

You let out a breath. “Thanks, Lucky,” you say, bending to pat them on the head. You’ve got this. You straighten up and nod to yourself before continuing on towards the exit.

* * *

"Wait, you mean you sent them in there? Alone?!" 

Brain raises an eyebrow at Ephemer's outburst. "Well, sure. Didn't you two split off that first time anyway? I'm sure your friend can handle themself." 

"Yeah, but that was before… it's just, the nightmares and remembering and… I didn't want to push it. They shouldn't be in there on their own. Open the portal again, I'm going to go make sure they're okay."

"Look, I don't know what's going on between the two of you, but you can't go in there. The connection isn't as stable this time around and sending another person over might cause all sorts of problems. You two can talk about this when they're back." He waves his hand dismissively as he swivels his chair to face the desk. 

Ephemer puts a firm hand on the back of the chair to turn it around to face him again. "What do you mean 'the connection isn't as stable'? Why would you send them in then?" 

"Because if you hadn't noticed, Mr. Leader," Brain says, standing up from his seat and forcing Ephemer to take a step backwards, "I don't exactly have a replacement investigator and we still haven't solved the issue of the glitches showing up in Daybreak Town. What do you expect me to do? Sit around while the glitches could mess up all the things we've been working towards after the Keyblade War? Your friend is good with a keyblade and smart enough to handle investigating a new world. Give them some credit."

"What's going on?" Ven's voice trembles from the doorway. Ephemer's face feels hot and he takes another step away from Brain, running a hand through his hair. 

"Sorry, Ven. You saw my friend come through here on their way to the new world, didn’t you? Did they seem all right?" 

"Um… yeah, I guess. Did something happen?" Ven takes a few tentative steps over to the table where he'd been sitting. 

Ephemer sighs, tugging at this scarf. "No, not really. I just didn't want to send them to the new world again until we were sure they were doing all right.” He lets out a long breath, glancing over at Brain and shaking his head, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. “You shouldn’t have… you should have waited for me to come back before anyone went into the new world.”

Brain throws his hands up. “So you have executive decision making over this now? Your friend wanted to go and we need someone over there to investigate. You’d rather we just sit around hoping things will change?”

“No! It’s just – this is my best friend we’re talking about, and I – that’s not…” He curls his fingers into a fist and releases them, blinking several times to gather his thoughts. “The five of us leaders haven’t even discussed how we’re investigating this as a whole. Where are Lauriam and Skuld? We should get them in here. Brain, open the portal again, I’m going to go find my friend.”

“I told you, the connection isn’t as stable. It’s a risk I don’t want to–”

“I wasn’t asking.”

Ven seems to shrink in his seat at Ephemer’s tone and Brain clicks his tongue before turning to his monitors and bringing up a new window of data that he scrolls through, nodding to himself. There’s a crackle and a flickering portal appears near the far wall.

Brain turns to face Ephemer once more. “If something happens to you,” he says, “that’s not on me. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do. See you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: while I was looking through KH song titles to use for this chapter's title, I very briefly considered calling it "Rage Awakened" before deciding that was far too dramatic for Ephemer's outburst haha. There's definitely a lot happening in this chapter! Things are not quite going according to plan for the keykids. 
> 
> This is the last "official" Colors of the Sunrise chapter for this year. I'll be resuming posting sometime in 2021, though I'll also be around on my KH Tumblr [theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com](https://theworldthatneverwas.tumblr.com) if you'd like to chat or check up on progress between now and then. 
> 
> Stay tuned for a special winter holiday story next week on the 22nd! It will **NOT** be posted as a chapter of Colors of the Sunrise; it will be a separate story added as part of this series. Check the fics on this account if you're having trouble finding it! I hope you have a great end of the year and hope to see you again in 2021 :)
> 
> Update 2021-01-26: Colors of the Sunrise will resume posting sometime in 2021, but to give canon time to advance, I will be posting two shorter chapter collections that I've already written which take place post Keyblade War and feature Ephemer, Skuld, and Player. The first chapter of the first collection, Between Part and Meet, is up on this account now, so take a look if you enjoyed this fic!


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